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Before I departed, I took one last shot each of Bluey and Naboo. They both seemed to be aware that it was around about one and a half hours post arrival and my camera's return usually meant it would not be long before I disappeared.

Naboo finally looked sorry for himself and for his racing around and allowed a good photo to be taken - perhaps in the hope that I may stay longer...

I had one more place I wished to visit on this trip, however - possibly two, if the weather permitted. I wanted to pop into Shoreham to shop at 1-2 stores. I had hoped for fine weather to allow me to stroll along the pathway to the fort from the beached house boats, but instead of dry windless weather, I was greeted by snow. I like snow and yet there were not enough flakes falling to show up in my photos.

The dark skies may show something falling or about to - but not a single flake shows up, despite there being a fall heavy enough to make one blink and huddle up in ones coat. One pigeon sat on the roof of 'toilet street'. One gull snuggled into itself in the church yard, as I walked past to grab a steamy hot coffee and wander around the street market while enjoying these falling white flecks. In close up, you can see 4-5 white specks in the gull picture, but...only just.

That was my early-February trip completed. Back home, and I got a shot of the youngest robin. Not all the brightness of the red patch is evident yet - its only just beginning to color in his face and chest.

There has not been much activity on the feeder pole from starlings over the past week or three, but I managed to catch one guy taking a snack.

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I did finally manage to get a shot of Naboo's face as his dashing about to avoid the detested camera I held was paused for long enough to nibble a seed.

Bluey was quite happy to have his photo taken while I waited for Naboo to slow down, as he generally does, eventually.

Another seed-dive out of shot and hide-behind-the-cage attempt were next up from Naboo. Bluey's this-visit trick was to perch as seen in the next shot, but turn his head upside down to look at the ceiling. Alas, each time I aimed to take a photo, he turned his head back to usual position. He also did a lot of yawning this time - but once again, not while the camera was aimed at him.

Finally - a decent Naboo shot! Well - had he not got a bar across his face! Meanwhile, I glanced out of the window and what should I see but a white show-pigeon! Of course, my camera had to take a shot of that! It was then almost time to leave Lancing and move on to the next stage of my excursion.

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Patience paid off and pigeons were spotted around ten minutes before it was time to make my way towards the bus stop to catch my bus out of Worthing.

Long time readers may recall that usually, when timing a trip from Worthing, it means I call in upon a pair of feathered pals in Lancing. Yes, this was my purpose for waiting for a specific bus once again. It has been a while, almost a year perhaps, since my last visit due to not being able to tell more than 1 day ahead whether or not I would be free - so usually unable to arrange to call in in advance. Finally, I had advance warning and was able to plan a visit.

Bluey remembered me - that 'featherless human with the pink box that sits and stares' at him was visiting again. Naboo also recalled me, and after several screeches of delight at having a visitor to entertain, played his usual trick of 'hide from the camera', firstly by sorting stuff on the base of his cage...

...then by hiding behind the cage bars...then by diving into the seed tray just as I was about to snap a shot - typical.

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The blurred shot we begin today's post with is of Mr Bob the robin sitting in the patch between trees and shrubs behind the washing line. February has us with 3 robins in the garden - Mr, Mrs, and youngster Bob. Youngster Bob will soon be shooed away to make way for this coming season's offspring.

The city pigeon from across the corner has found the seed deposit below the bird feeder in our back yard - and visited a few times. For obvious reasons, I am calling it white-tail. I actually saw Whitetail again today, the day of posting.

This brings us to my next excursion taken in the first half of February. Here is a shot of one of those 'big black birds' munching something on Worthing beach. From the beak and head shape, my up to date bird identification guide classifies it as a crow. A group congregated - 1-2-3...

I had around an hour to wait in Worthing, as I had to arrive at my next destination at a set time rather than whenever the fancy took me. I therefore sat in a shelter and watched the birds for most of the hour. It was snowy-sleety weather, and too cold to enjoy rambling along the seafront or perusing the stores in the mall on this excursion. The next birds after the crows to make an appearance were the gulls swarming around the pier.

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Here are the black-necked swans, along with a pair of mute swans in the second shot. Mute swans are 'normal' for our area, and can be sighted easily on waterways such as the moat in Arundel and river Arun in Arundel and Littlehampton.

I continued towards the cafe/exit and spotted an info board concerning eiders - with a living example right next to it. Other than in Arundel, I do not recall having sighted eiders, although they are a resident bird.

This concludes my late-January visit to Arundel. Perhaps next month, on my excursion, the mating rituals will have commenced and bright plumaged birds will be performing for my camera.

My next trip was to Brighton and on my way home, I took my camera out while on the top layer of ther double decker bus and took a shot of a row of pigeons above one of the shops. The seagull is a reflection through the bus window from the other side in the close up picture...

Back home, and I had 3 wood pigeons on the fence at once. Alas, one flew away before I could grab my camera from the spare room to take the photo.

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I took a lot of pictures of the water rail, but none came out perfectly clear on this occasion. I will have to try again on my next trip!

Eventually, I moved on from the woodland hide, passing this coot as I did so. It refused to show its face though, despite me waiting a few minutes for it to do so. As I walked around the last stretch of 3-4 lakes, I caught sight of some pigeons - so out came the camera!

Two separate sightings at two lakes. Before returning to the reserve photos, a brief update from the back yard as January disappears. On a second occasion, a great tit was seen to be investigating the nesting box at the far end of the yard - maybe I will be lucky and have great tits as well as blue tits visit more regularly in 2017. Previously, they make the odd appearance, but are far from everyday sightings.

The starlings are coming less often this month - I am not sure if they have found a better food supply elsewhere or are joined up with a flock nearby and so not as present in this yard. The magpie has been hanging out the tall dead tree at the base of the yard, preventing the smaller birds from feeding temporarily. Wood pigeons have started to frequent the fence...

BIRD NEWS:293

The pheasant family were around for quite some time. My patience paid off, and within the 25-30 minutes I remained at the hide, the water rail made an appearance. This is the 3rd trip in a row I have been lucky enough to spot it.

The pheasants remained also, although when all 3 were there, one chased the water rail away a couple of times - it moved towards the water but then returned to view 3-4 times.

Munching away with the either juvenile or female pheasant, the water rails return appearance gave further chances of a good shot.

The moorhen and mallard stayed around also, and a female mallard joined her mate not long afterwards.