BIRD NEWS:433

One of my last photos from the between bus wait in Worthing is of the seagull watching the pigeons. I do have a couple more pictures of the turnstones to share before ending the pictures from this excursion though.

The very next day, I was off out again - this time with Liz to Pulborough Brooks. I only took a couple of pictures on this trip. The first is of a bird of prey we spotted on our wanderings along a footpath that lead from the RSPB reserve to Pulborough. On our return trip we found it sitting on a post. The photo makes it look like a wood pigeon - but thru binoculars it was seeable as a bird of prey.

We later discovered that the first one we had seen was a marsh harrier, with a later sighting of a buzzard. Earlier still we had seen both buzzard and red kite - so this trip was definitely a good one for spotting birds of prey! Regular readers may guess that this destination would result in a couple of show pigeon pictures, as it did.

The first shot shows a city pigeon on the pigeon hole roof and two white show pigeons further along, while my final photo from this trip shows 3 show pigeons enjoying the fresh water recently poured into the bird bath by a staff member.

My next excursion relative to birds was to Findon sheep fair with Liz and Megan in early September. Obviously there were more sheep than birds, but there was a birds of prey display that we caught the tail end of one showing and the start of a second show, and a pair of tents filled with the birds for me to photograph.

There are a couple of birds on THIS path!

BIRD NEWS:432

My next trip with birds in it was, as you can see above, to the beach. I took the bus to Brighton and did some shopping, had coffee then came back towards home. I had a half hour wait between bus changes at Worthing, so thought I would wander along the beach and see what I could see, the seagull being the first to capture my camera's attention after scanning the distant pigeons.

I was just spotting something sitting on the wooden slats over the sewerage pipe, when the seagull decided to fly away. I went along to investigate. I did not recognize the bird at first, mistaking it for some type of tern perhaps. There was a group of them closer to me with a few gulls further out to sea.

I spoke to Liz the next day and also peeped in the bird ID books and have come to the conclusion that Liz's guess was right - turnstones. As it is only my second sighting, I have yet to learn to know them without checking. She thought they might be as she knows turnstones are sighted at this beach.

So we have seagulls at the end, looking out to sea, with turnstiles closer inland, lazing about. My last two shots for today are of the beach gang as is, some regular readers may recall I often took photos of the beach gang as I used to travel to visit a nearby parrot and wait between buses here regularly.

BIRD NEWS:431

Continuing with the Arundel Festival trip, the first photograph depicts the mallards, pigeons and Carolina ducks munching away at seed - while the next shot shows them all flying away in a fluster as something scared them.

It was not long before they realized the danger did not exist and they were back at the food source around our feet.

The photo above illustrates the difference between mother and child Carolina duck - the two ducks at the front of the photo. Below, a close up shot of the species. Alas no males about - you will have to wait until I go to the WWT to get a shot of one of those again.

A second chance to see the differences and similarities between the female adult and child Carolina duck brings us almost to the close of the day out. Although we did many other activities, most of the rest were not related to birds in any way - but to musical performances, street stalls, coffee drinking, etc. My final shot for today's post is of a duck race with a difference.

As soon as the tide turned, 2-3 thousand toy ducks were tipped out of sacks into the River Arun from the bridge. People had been able to sponsor a toy duck in the race with a chance to win a prize for the first three to make it down the river to the finishing place. Divers had been brought in to dislodge ducks that got stuck on the riverbank or behind boats and we watched the start and heard the result on the loud speaker a little later.

BIRD NEWS:430

This brings us to my next excursion, taken on bank holiday Monday with my friend Liz. We went to the final of 10 days of the 40th Arundel Festival. Regular readers might have expected me to mention Arundel when spotting my first photo - as it is the sort of shot I take when attending the Arundel Christmas celebrations most years. Here we see three sculpted birds, including a rook (far right) that more resembles a blackbird to me.

Amongst many other activities, we had a peek at a woodwork display. This seemed to focus on birds and bears, although there were other sculptures. I took 2 or 3 shots of the bird related pieces.

As you see, eagles and owls seem to be featured prominently. Another of our activities was popping along to Swanbourne Lake to feed the ducks - and pigeons. Both mallards and city pigeons were in attendance, along with gulls, jackdaws, and a breed of duck Liz knew as the Carolina.

Above you can see the pigeons our seed offering attracted, while below you can see how close they would come for food and an example of this female Carolina duck.

Information about migration can be found HERE.