Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Medmerry in the Wind!!

A day off work whoop😁! Where to go, I considered Oare Marshes in Kent to see the returning Bonaparte's Gull, but with nothing else major reported decided to stay in Sussex,hopefully something else awesome will come into North Kent in the next month or so as Autumn migration kicks in and I can make a day of it, Napoleon may hang about for a few weeks!! So decided on Medmerry near Selsey an excellent newish RSPB reserve, I've been a few times before and with Pagham Harbour and Church Norton nearby it made sense!! Also some Wood Sandpipers had been reported and I ain't seen any for a while so that clinched it!!

Managed to get up fairly early and arrived at the Easton Lane carpark around 6.10 AM, was on my own with Margie to busy "doing everything" to attend,I also think she wanted a lay in zzzzzzzzzz! First thing was the wind!! It was blooming chilly so I ended up wearing a sweat shirt and me winter coat, in August!! 😲 second thing was I decided to leave my scope at home,which could be an issue in the search for Wood Sandpipers!!!! A case of the back and neck over-ruling the brain!!!😂

A nice Moon in the sky, as I left the car park, the paths are well set out and the wide verges look pretty good, with loads of flowers, the path wanders through Gorse patches from which various small birds appeared regularly to be promptly snatched away by the wind,it was blooming difficult to get on anything!! Linnets,loads of Goldfinches including plenty of young uns, several Yellowhammers and a couple of Stonechats, plus loads that could of been anything!! Oh and a flock of Geese!

Early morning Moon!

Canada Geese

Linnet

Stonechat

Despite the wind it was a very pleasant walk the views are excellent all round, the first point of interest was a sluice where the tidal part ends, several Waders on the mud mostly Redshanks,but a Greenshank in with em, and a Curlew and a Whimbrel handily giving a size comparison though might have been better if the Whimbrel had been in focus!!

Greenshank

Whimbrel (blurred front),Curlew at the back!!

I carried on, much of the same, a lot of birds,briefly glimpsed, nearly garrotted by my hat twice, finally got to the Stilt Pool, several Sandpipers on it pretty sure there were 4 Wood Sandpipers and 3 Common Sandpipers, in with the Lapwings, Avocets, various Ducks and Gulls, unfortunately they were all pretty distant and the lack of Scope was a problem, although my back was quite relieved I hadn't lugged it around!!

Grey Heron

Wood Sandpiper

This Mallard had done well to get six ducklings to this size! Also ahhh!

2 Wood Sands

Reasonably Close Common Sandpiper unfortunately none of the Woodies came this close😢

After about 20 minutes scanning, I left the pool and headed to the beach, fantastic to have a large beach all to yourself in Sussex, does't happen often!! Big flock of Starlings, at the start but very little else until I got near the breach, with another Curlew, Whimbrel combo, a Sanderling, a couple of Ringed Plovers and at the Breach a couple of Common Terns and a cracking bright Yellow Wagtail which unfortunately did hang around long enough for me to get a pic, a Kestrel hunting, possibly a Marsh Harrier at extreme distance,(no scope strikes again😢) and a Peregrine the best of it there and back!!

The Spinnaker Tower

The other way!

Starlings

Another Whimbrel/Curlew comparison shot and this time both in focus-ish😂

Ringed Plover

Common Tern

This is the real price of my no scope policy,I spent ages examining this as I thought it was a small Raptor having seen a very distant Harrier previously I tried to convince myself it was a Monties!! Bloody Pigeon😄😂 leaning into the wind Doh, Doh!!!!

Sanderling

Kestrel

Peregrine

Starlings still there on the return

Interestingly my shadow seemed to have been hijacked by Clint Eastwood,Good,the bad or the Ugly you decide!!!😱😲

If I only had a few more Dollars😢

So retracing my steps I hit the pool again.all still much as before,Distant Wood Sandpipers a closer Common Sand and a Lapwing close in!! I see on Birdguides, 3 Cattle Egrets reported later, I didn't see em so assuming they came in later,even I wouldn't miss three large white birds and I did check the Cattle damn!!

Lapwing

Common Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Little Egret

Headed back to the car park,much the same as the journey in although the wind had dropped a bit and my winter coat was getting a bit much but I made it back to the car before melting!! A Skylark, Stonechat and a Yellowhammer posed ok on the return leg!!

Skylark

Someone had a massive fire going,somewhat irresponsible considering the windy conditions

Stonechat

House Sparrow

Flock Of Sparrows

Showy Kestrel

Yellowhammer

Linnet

So back to the car a decent walk with some good birds seen, with RSPB Pagham Harbour only 7 minutes away I decided to give it a look for the reported Spotted Redshank, no sign😢while I was there but did have another close Common Sandpiper and plenty of Dragonflies seen as well!

Nice close Little Egret,lots of these around the whole area!

Common Sandpiper

Comma

As I was about to leave I checked Birdguides to find that there was a Roseate Tern at Church Norton, I doubted I would get into the car park and with the distances involved my lack of scope would mean it would be pretty tough to pick em out anyway, decided to go for it, rocked up got the last place in the car park, walked around to the benches where two birders had the birds ,there were 2, in their scopes, excellent directions were given and I got em in my bins, stood out quite well against the darker Common Terns and the larger Sandwich Terns, another birder let me look through his scope so good views were obtained, much thanks to all concerned!! My pictures are predictably pants!!