BIRD NEWS:696

 

The marshland you can see is the coastal walk along from Pagham salthouse to Pagham RSPB visitors center. Regular readers may be recalling RSPB Pulborough Brooks - an often visited spot. This RSPB reserve was totally different.

That spot of white in the distance is an egret. The first of many sightings during our day in Pagham - and one of TWO species of egret. In Australia, we used to have little egret and greater egret, but in the UK we have little egret and cattle egret. Later on our trip we discovered the cattle egret - a bird species I had not seen before!

I took photos of all the info boards - and most of them had a bird depicted upon them. Yes, we saw a heron later on in our trek, also!

Here is another info board....

What is that peering down at us from a tree near the visitors center - a black redstart? grey cheeked thrush? pied wheatear? white throated robin? marsh warbler? sykes warbler? lesser whitethroat? marmoras warbler? barred warbler? a spotted flychatcher? maybe a nightingale?

Well, we were not sure.....so I took some photos to check out later.

Liz considered a nightingale, and several warblers and flycatchers look similar...but....

...well, it had a thin black beak, fluffy gray plumage and dark double ring eye....but we didn't tell for sure, though settled on MOST probably a flycatcher of some sort - or a warbler, or a nightingale.....

BIRD NEWS:695

 

In this shot you can see it is a bird, at least. I can say quite certainly it was a marsh harrier - as we stopped and chattered to 2 separate people who had been watching it also.

Finally, you can see it clearer.

Once again, I tried to get a good shot of the marsh harrier....

I kept on trying, as it was such a rare chance to see one close enough for even this dumb camera to snap - I hoped.

I tried and tried....but each attempt the birds either dived out of sight or turned in the wrong direction.

I persevered....

In the end I gave up. Our trip was expected to begin at Church Norton, where we planned to park then walk along the marshy coastline to Pagham RSPB visitor center then explore. Our trip however went in reverse, with us starting at the old salt house harbour entrance and walking the coastline towards the visitor center, but skipping Church Norton - all because Liz took a premature turn and we started near Pagham church rather than Church Norton. We both agreed it to be a lucky error though, because not only did we see marsh harriers that otherwise we would have missed out on, but plenty more!

I have included a couple of post boards for info....that I snapped as we trotted along, so I could catch up on the info after returning from the trip.

BIRD NEWS:694

Here again is the baby robin that appeared in the garden early April.

As you can se the zoom feature on my current camera sucks. If you go close up....it distorts.

Here it is encountering a sparrow.

Without a zoom, it comes out much clearer, but too small. I used to have a better camera, but they don't make Fujifilm compact digitals any more. Other brands don't have the same features or quality, though.

That was the last baby robin piccie for that session - but just to bore you with baby robin pics, I took this shot on my work phone. Well actually...two shots.

This shot is the first from a recent trip to Pagham Harbor that Liz and I made in April. You cannot see much other than a field and trees perhaps? But somewhere there was a marsh harrier - that elusively avoided the camera.

I took a whole bunch of shots though, as I had never seen one so close before. In fact there were more than one - 3, possibly 4, in total. In today's final snap you can just see a brown blob near the middle tree perhaps?

BIRD NEWS:693

 

The Trumpeter swans were too busy to take notice of us on this trip.

Mrs Silvertag noticed me, but the Bewick's were already fairly occupied.

They were all nibbling or napping....it seemed.

We then came across some preening ducks, and a swimming duck. The greylag geese had young!!

They were polite but wary.....and accompanied by several cuties.

Even at that age, the little ones had personalities.

Alas, much of WWT Arundel was still shut - one aviary due to bird flu precautions, 2-3 due to rebuilding the area. Back home and the excitement comes from a baby robin who was initially seen sitting on the tree outside my bedroom window - where parent robin brought its meals...

 

 

BIRD NEWS:692

 

Once again, the skylark is the object of the photograph.

I was happy to observe one so close - close enough to ensure it came out without blurring.

I was quite happy with my pictures from our Monday wandering. Back home, and a mother blackbird was taking a bath in one of our tubs.

Splash!!

I have cleared the patch behind the pond and planted some bits and pieces there. After a bit of a plant and weed session, Pidge decided to explore....

Next, Liz and I spent some time in Arundel. Here you can see a pair of city pigeons we found - well, I found - over a platform above the river...

Being Arundel, we took a trip round the WWT Reserve. We found some ducks....to begin with.

BIRD NEWS:692

 

On our return along the canal into Chichester, I took more pictures - including of a pair of swans building their 2022 nest.

...and a diving grebe.

It surfaced as it swum across the canal, for a better shot or two.

On our next outing, Liz and I trekked over Highdown Hill. A couple of people were staring at some pale greyish birds and on noting this we saw a pair of skylarks standing on the grassland!

The people did not seem to know if they were or were not skylarks - but Liz and I knew.

I took several shots so as to be sure to get at least one good one - I hoped.

However, one of my better shots was on our post coffee/gardens descent of the hill, when we spotted another skylark.

The skylark is an increasingly rare birds in the UK, and it is only karma/luck that has me living in such close proximity to a multitude of them.