With Margie, whose been a bit poorly last couple of days, feeling a bit better, we decided a walk down at Church Norton would be in order, reports of a Purple Heron in the area a complete coincidence you understand😂. I was already slightly in the doghouse as I'd forgotten about Easter and she'd bought me a Lindt Chocolate Bunny😢😱 Although it worked out ok as reading the ingredients I couldn't have it anyway!! What sort of monsters put Gluten in Chocolate FFS!! So Margie gets to eat the bunny and I just get to ring the bell. 😢!! Luckily I had plenty of the Chocolate Fridge cake I'd made yesterday left so all was not lost!!
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| Contaminated Bunny! GRRrrrrrrrr😡😢 |
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| Bell of sadness!😢 |
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| Fridge cake redemption!!! Hurrah!!!😂 |
I rung the bell of sadness when the 5th goal went in at Elland Road as well, come on you mighty whites get ya act together!! MOT!!
Before we start, can I remove all the jeopardy and say we didn't see the Purple Heron, there was no chance we were gonna see the Purple Heron, I've only ever seen one and had to spend 5 hours in a hide in Essex for a ten second view of that, they are basically invisible to the naked eye, I've dipped em no end of times! So it was no surprise to find on returning home that the bugger was seen again this afternoon! 😡😂
Anyway back to Church Norton we arrived at 9 o'clock, after the last two days of birding I'm feeling the pace so can't even blame Margie for the late start!! The first thing we noticed, even from the car park was the noise coming from Tern Island a cacophony of screaming, Sandwich Terns, Black-headed Gulls and Med Gulls, fantastic!! The view from the benches at Church Norton looking across Pagham Harbour is always spectacular, but add the huge number of birds and it's very uplifting to the spirit!!As well as the Seabirds there were numerous Waders on the exposed mud, with plenty of Curlew, Black-tailed Godwits, Dunlins. Ringed and Grey Plover, a few Lapwing and loads of Redshanks, fantastic!!
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| The Blossom was looking good, pic by Margie |
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| View across the harbour by Margie |
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| Tern Island even at distant the noise is impressive |
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| A couple of times everything went up in a panic, but couldn't find any reason for it! |
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| Common Redshank |
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| Curlew |
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| A Few Birds |
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| Even the waders had a bit of a fly around!! |
We headed around to the beach, wandering as far as the lake with the Reedbed, I gave it a good grilling for the Heron but as said above no luck, I scoped the sea without much success either!! Was a few Linnets, a couple of Greenfinch and two Roe Deer in the 1srt Several but all in all pretty quiet. Margie had a good time with the scenery and the light!
Some good stuff there! I concentrated on the wildlife, most of which had it's back to me!
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| Mostly Sandwich Terns |
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| Med Gulls |
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| Sandwich Terns |
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| Med Gull |
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| Dunlin |
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| Sandwich Tern |
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| Med Gulls |
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| Curlew |
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| Sandwich Tern |
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| Sandwich Terns |
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| Tree on the mound |
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| Black-headed Gull by Margie, going for the reflection shot! |
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| Goldfinch |
Giving up on the Purple Heron, we headed to RSPB Pagham Harbour. Things took a turn for the better here when I added Spotted Redshank and Green Sandpiper to the year list, though the weather turned a bit with fog rolling in!
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| Blue Tit |
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| Greenfinch |
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| House Sparrow |
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| Spotted Redshank |
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| Flyover Raven was a bit of a surprise |
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| Spotted Redshank |
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| Great Crested Grebe having a scratch |
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| Fun watching the Spotshank pulling up worms, then running down to the water to wash em! |
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| Was also a nice breeding plumage Black-tailed Godwit, looked good even in the dull weather |
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| Common Redshank |
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| Godwit and Spotshank |
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| Someone clever could probably take these two pics and merge em so both birds are in focus, but it's beyond my capability! |
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| Fog rolling in by Margie |
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| She found some bright spots though! |
We had great fun, watching the Newts in the large pond they have! We were looking for Marsh Frogs which we've seen there before and were surprised to finds Newts instead!! Margie got some pics, not sure what sort they are but seemed to be two sorts one bigger that the other! Lot's of big diving Beetles and other bugs!
I also got a short video of a couple of em!
A very nice end to a pleasant couple of hours!!
Arriving back home I checked our pond no Newts but it's Tadpolemegedon down there short video below!!
We also have a Pond Marigold to rival the RSPB as well, although we only have the one!
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| Our Pond Marigold! |
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