A Christmas Miracle!!

 With the weather forecast set to change, work and family coming down for Christmas, today was likely my last chance for a bit of birding, luckily we had done the majority of the Christmas shopping yesterday so with vague promises of maybe coming back early to finish it off mumbled enthusiastically I headed off. Destination, Pagham, lured by tales of Snow Buntings, Red-necked and Slav Grebes. An uneventful if cold journey for the most part, although the last 3/4 of a mile was along one of the most pot-holed roads I've been on,probably only the road to the Shellness reserve on Sheppey it's equal and this one had houses down both sides!! I reached the carpark, closed😢😢😲😱!! No room at the Inn!! (you can see where I'm going with this!!😀) Flummoxed I reversed slightly up the road, where a guy was scraping the ice of his car, I wound down the window and enquired about the car park, opening times, apparently It's been shut for ages!! (maybe you could think about putting that on the info Birdguides? Would have saved my shock absorbers!!) I asked the guy if there was anywhere nearby to park, as the road had "no parking" signs on every available surface! "You can stick it on my lawn if you want" he replied, a selfless act of kindness in the modern world!! My gratitude was enhanced by the knowledge that Pagham Carpark was good mile walk away, Hallelujah!! Now I realise that as Christmas Miracles go, it's not really in the same league as the Virgin Birth and I doubt it will be the start of a new religion, that will lead to people wearing chains with Kia Rio pendants around their necks instead of Crucifixes, but it cheered me up!!  ( Another Birder suggested the Car Park has been shut because of coastal erosion, but that seems to be complete bollocks as it's hundreds of yards from the shore line?) 

So safely parked up, I headed down to the spit, the Sun decided to rise magnificently!

Sun rising magnificently

There were a fair few Brent Geese flying around, settling along the shoreline, a Chiffchaff in the gorse the only sign of life in the bushes. 

Brent Geese

Brent Geese

Brent Geese

Chiffchaff

The light was quite dull, there were a few Grebes on the water but all I could see were Little Grebes!

Little Grebes, saw quite a few of these throughout the morning

I scoured the area, no sign of any Snow Buntings, a Kingfisher was on the rusting  metal seawall, would see it several times throughout the morning, but it never really cooperated!!

Kingfisher, just chilling.

Though I couldn't find the Bunting, there was plenty of other stuff in and around the harbour, Curlew, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Oystercatchers, Redshank, Little Egrets, Teal, Wigeon, Gulls etc.

Light was fairly pants at this point though the sky did put on a good show for a while!

The sky being awesome

3 Curlew flying across the awesome sky!! Couldn't get em in the right place though!😢

In my new found spirit of Christmas joy, I'm choosing to believe this Curlew is giving the crab a lift across the Sea😀

Common Gull

Little Egret

Wigeon

Dunlin

More Curlew across the sky, though I feel the Sky is no longer pulling it's weight at this point!

I headed further out on to the shingle, my bonhomie was fading fast as I trudged over the stones, I foolishly had put wellies on !!! I reached the highpoint and set up the scope for a Seawatch/Grebehunt I scoured the sea, for a minute I thought I had refound the Walrus that had been in the area, but it turned out to be a Seal, in my defence it was a big Seal but the complete lack of Tusks was a bit of a give away!!😂

Seal

I could find very little on the Sea it was fairly rough off Church Norton, picked out a couple of Scoter and a couple of Great Crested Grebes, but no sign of any of their rarer cousins, no doubt they are there somewhere but I couldn't find them. Towards Bognor the sea was flatter but again only GCG and Gulls scattered about!! This day wasn't going as hoped. Still good views of various Waders and Wildfowl.

Wigeon

Redshank

Brent Geese

Grey Plover

Turnstone

So I headed back towards the channel, the Kingfisher was back on the metal wall and then I nearly trod on a Snow Bunting!! Few pics below, the word few is used in it's loosest possible sense!!😏

Kingfisher

Snow Bunting

Eventually tired of running around at my feet it went and had a chat with the Kingfisher!!

Cracking and confiding little bird, Snow Buntings are strange when they are in a sizable flock they seem to be very flighty but on their own they are mentally tame, move slowly and you can get real close without disturbing them, I was within 10 feet at one point and it was happily feeding away!

I headed a couple of hundred yards around the corner with a view to scanning the harbour. The usual suspects were all present, a couple of Goldeneyes were distant and a Red-breasted Merganser flew past!

Curlew

Red-breasted Merganser

The Kingfisher flew by, but a bit quick!

Pagham Church

Goldeneye

Ringed Plover

Grey Plover

Flypast Wigeon

Think these maybe Knot or not!! Very distant, but they looked very grey, it's strange whenever I'm at Church Norton the big displays are on the Pagham side, I finally go around to the Pagham side and blow me they are still in the distance, grrrr!😁

Bar-tailed Godwit,3 flew right over my head

Common Gull

Obviously I went back and had another play with the Snow Bunting!!

A Med Gull flew through, but distant, I decided to have a scope of Pagham Lagoon, a raft of Tufted Ducks, about 30 or so and approx 10 Little Grebes but too far away for pics. As I stood on the path I noticed a small flock of Skylarks. Were some more Waders on the mud as well!

Med Gull

Redshank

Skylark

Dunlin

I decided to call it a day, highly enjoyable morning, the Snow Bunting is a cracker and the supporting cast excellent, though no scarce Grebes but you can't win em all, couple reported at Selsey Bill apparently! I returned to the car, the cynic in me  rose to the surface and I was half expecting a clamp and a hefty release fee, but no all as I left it, faith in humanity restored hurrah😂!!