Friday 30 September 2016

Pagham Spit & Lidsey SF

With good coverage on the North Wall this morning (see the Selsey Birder blog) I thought I would also try a quick look at Pagham Spit later in the day.

There was lots of small bird activity between the showers with five Wheatears, three Stonechats, plenty of Meadow Pipits, a Chiffchaff, a charm of Goldfinches and a large flock of Linnets all present. It was nice to just sit and watch the many waders & wildfowl come and go from the end of the spit and while doing this I saw the Peregrine come off its regular island and have an aerial duel with a Raven, quite spectacular. (In the pic the corvid looks smaller but that's a product of "small, far away" as they say on Father Ted!). On the way back a nice Pintail was with the Wigeon near the shoreline and there were 37 Turnstones (count 'em!) and two Redshanks on Little Lagoon.

Lidsey SF on the way back produced four Grey Wagtails, better numbers of Chiffchaffs (surely a Yellow-browed Warbler here at some stage!) and a few Pied Wagtails. I shall be devoting a lot more time to this area and its surrounds from now on.

Butterflies today were Small Coppers, Large Whites, Commas and Red Admirals.

Stonechats, North Wall:




Wheatears, Pagham Spit:







Stonechat & Wheatear, Pagham Spit:




Peregrine & Raven:




Grey Wagtail, Lidsey SF: