The main group was ‘third time lucky’ after this proposed visit was rained off on two previous occasions. Starting the visit at Church Norton near Selsey, we spent an enjoyable hour scanning the mudflats for waders. This turned up a smart looking whimbrel, which was a nice addition to our year lists. Trudging across the shingle to do a spot of sea watching, we came across some newly budding sea kale, a specialist of this habitat. We then had fun playing ‘follow my leader’ along a very bouncy gangplank in search of the elusive red-legged partridge, which we eventually caught up with. Back near the churchyard we spent some time enjoying close views of a green woodpecker exploring the meadow grass. Its red head marking, and yellow rump were very smart. A cheeky greenfinch was spotted above it in the scrub.
Nearby, the lovely little chapel of St Wilfrid’s, produced an unexpected gem. A stained-glass window portraying local birdlife.
We lunched at the picnic tables back at the RSPB visitors centre taking the time to chat with the warden about the nestboxes they were filming. One such already contained a barn owl and the other was being investigated by a kestrel. A visit to the hide overlooking the ferry pool produced a good list including avocet, shoveler, teal and a flyover from a sparrowhawk. The visit was rounded off by a beautiful great crested grebe seen fishing and shaking his impressive head feathers. As usual we had a lot of fun and really felt like we had shaken off this wet winter!
20 Species
Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
Blackbird (Turdus merula)
Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
Coot (Fulica atra)
Curlew (Numenius arquata)
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)
Pied Wagtail (yarrellii) (Motacilla alba yarrellii)
Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna)
Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)
Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)
Teal (Anas crecca)
Wigeon (Mareca penelope)
Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus)
