Catching up on September

The Spoonbills afforded good phographic opportunities when they fed just off the sluice.

On September 25th I had the good fortune of watching an Osprey fishing along the beachfront from our living room wingdow!

In late September we had a holiday in North Cornwall and whilst walking from Porthcothan Bay towards Bedruthan steps came across a couple of Choughs....superb birds!

 

Catching up on August...

Little Egret...ever present in the Harbour

Spoonbills ...very distant from the East side of the harbour

Curlew Sandpipers feeding in White's Creek

 Black Tailed Godwit  near the sluice.

Catching up on July

 In view of the excellent work done on a daily basis by the Selsey Birder blog team, I have recently  decided to reduce input to my own blog to mainly photographs and interesting personal highlights both at Pagham Harbour and in my Aldwick garden plus various holiday destinations - now usualy Suffolk and Norfolk or Cornwall.  So, starting in July this year.....

Little Terns

Always a joy watching them off Pagham Spit looking for small fish and taking them toi the island colony on one of the islands.

Green Woodpecker

There was a breeding pair not far from our garden but these juveniles took a liking to our little pond and frequently used it for their daily oblations,

Sand Martin

Sand Martins often use Pagham Lagoon for hawking flies during times of migration and these birds were taking full advantage one early evening.

Skylark

  I had a suspicion there was a pair breeding on the spit this year but they were certainly seen on several ocasions gathering interest but I never saw them actually feeding nestlings or youngsters.

 Turnstones

The metal work at the harbour entrance attracts birds of various species from time to time  but for a few days a couple of these birds used this spot for preening and resting on a regular basis.

A look back to August 16 2016...a birding highlight for me!

 It was an exciting morning when I stumbled upon this bird 9 years ago. The date is etched on my memory so today I decided to at least visit the site this morning in the vain hope of a repeat performance. Alas it was a not to be with just 3 Whinchats in the field behind Owl Point where this Aquatic Warbler showed up! 

                                    

                                              What a bird!

    

More Hoopoe shots

 I couldn't resist putting these photos of the two Hoopoes showing well yesterday on the Selsey peninsula.

A Hoopoe at Pagham!!

 It is common knowledge by now that there has been an influx of Hoopoes to the UK this Spring but a sighting on my local patch was a tremendous surprise.  A Whatsapp shout of a sighting was received when food shopping in Bognor so......this was a 'must' see!!

Initially showing at a distance in a field behind the North Wall stables but not easy to see in the long grass.

Not one but two birds but both difficult to see!

One of them took flight and flew west behind a line of trees out of sight. A few minutes later and the other took off and flew east behind the path behind the now gathering admirers. As we approached its approximate whereabouts it started calling and we could have been in Mallorca or  the south of Spain...a wonderful Mediterranean  'hoop,hoop' sound!  It was well hidden amongst the higher branches when it was spotted at the far side of a tree.  Not only was it was partially hidden by the branches it was back lit so photographing it was tricky.

Then this bird took flight and headed for the big tree in Little Welbourne

A great bird to see and hear!!!!