Local Exploring- Bremere Rife Wet Grasslands

Ian introduced me to the Bremere rife wet grassland areas at the end of last year so I decided to go back today to explore the area more fully. I first parked at Sidlesham Church and checked out the area north of Marsh Farm HERE and then drove round to Halseys and explored the area south of Marsh Farm to the Harbour HERE. There were plenty of singing birds in the fine weather (a welcomed interlude in the rain this week). 

Highlights included 3 first-winter White-fronted Geese (the same birds that have been around after the main flock left), 36 Cattle Egrets, 2 Marsh Harriers, good numbers of Common, Black-headed and Med Gulls, Curlews and Shelducks on the grasslands and there was a Firecrest and a female Blackcap in the Churchyard. 

A few more year ticks puts me on about 109 for the Peninsula and 113 for the county HERE and my world year list edges closer to 500 with 486 now. 

Russian White-fronted Geese (above and below) 

Cattle Egrets (above) and Gulls (above and below)

Upper Bremere Rife (above) and the lower part near the harbour (below). Looks like the rife flows into the Breach Pool which is also fed by Pagham Rife which comes in past Honer Reservoir. In mnay ways the lower parts of these Rifes are ecologically part of Pagham Harbour with the Brents, Lapwings, Cattle Egrets and Marsh Harriers etc regularly using these wet grasslands right up to the Golfcourse with regards to Bremere Rife and well past Honer Reservoir for Pagham rife. It was interesting that the rarest birds I saw today (the White-fronts) were hiding out away from the maddening crowds of the harbour. 

Waterbirds and Wet Lands

It was dicey getting out of our lane this morning with floods on Keynor Lane and also in Highleigh and later in the day the roads were closed. The garden looked like a lake last night and the patio was flooded but fortunately the rain stopped and the flood subsided before it got to the back door. Might need to do some flood proofing round here.

I managed to get to the Bill for the first time this year where it was quite lively with a steady procession of Red-throated Divers moving west (166 in total) and also a Velvet Scoter, 2 Great Northern Diver, a flock of 35 Med Gulls moving east and a few other bits and bobs HERE. A Common Seal was hauled up on the Beach showing nicely too. 

I then stopped at Ferry which is extremely flooded and walked along the tramway on the rising tide. The waders and waterfowl from White's Creek and East Side were being flushed up by the high tide in a spectacular scene viewable from the Tramway. The Blackwit numbers continue to increase, there must have been 1000 flying around and also had to be at least 4500 Lapwing between the harbour and Ferry. There was also a flock of 57 Avocet which are also new arrivals as far as I know.  I could even see the Dunlin and Knot flocks swirling around the Church Norton end of the harbour and the Grey Plovers which also hang around the Spit end were flying round too with a single Barwit. The main omission from today was Golden Plover with only a handful of birds indicating that they may have moved off already. Full list from Ferry and from the harbour viewed from the Tramway HERE .

After lunch with Holly I then went over to East Head where I dipped the Snow Bunting but had a nice selection of waterbirds including 2 Slavonian Grebes in the channel, 3 Great Northern Diver, a few Red-breasted Mergansers, a flock of 74 Avocet on Snowhill Marsh (also new arrivals as far as I know), 4 Greenshank, approx 3000 Brent Geese in the fields and at least 124 Sanderling on the tideline.  There was also 80+ Barwits flying around (the main wintering area for them round here) and some large numbers of waders viewable around Pilsey Sands/Island on Thorney Island across the Channel. Full list HERE.

What with the seabirds today I've now seen 480 species in the world this year which is not bad for early Feb! 

Common Seal at the Bill 

Brents at East Head- despite a good look I couldn't even find a Pale-bellied in them

Greenshanks at Snowhill

Avocets at Pagham Harbour (above) and Snowhill Marsh (below)- as far as I know new birds in 

Red-throated Divers (above) and Great Northern Diver (below) moving off the Bill

I rarely get a good opportunity to photograph the local Slavonian Grebes and today was no exception especially with my dodgy old 7D. 

Keynor Lane today- if the water levels keep rising round here we could be in a bit of trouble 

Patch tick

I successfully twitched the Purple Sandpiper at Medmerry Breach this morning - now on 206 for the Peninsula and the second patch tick in two days. There was quite a high tide roost at the Breach, Ebird list HERE. Other interesting bits included a couple of Sanderling, Marsh Harrier and a couple of Stonechats. 

While I was waiting for the tide to start falling I checked out the Ferry Pool HERE. More or less the same as yesterday although there were 24 Snipe flushed off the saltmarsh by the Tramway by the rising tide. 

Purple Sandpiper

Grey Plovers and Knots (above) 

Pintails 

Back to patch

I finally managed to get a full day in the field today after getting back last week. I attempted to do a full count again of the birds in Pagham Harbour. I started off by doing White's Creek and East Side and then checked the lagoon and spit before checking out North Wall and then lunch with Holly. After lunch I did Ferry and did Halseys back to North Wall. So I only missed Church Norton but could see most of the birds there from the Spit.

I made it 13,600 individuals of 84 species HERE with highlights including 2, possibly 3, first-winter Caspian Gulls, 2 pale-bellied Brent Geese, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 5 Bar-tailed Godwit. 250 Med Gulls at the Spit, 1 Peregrine and 3 Rock Pipit. The sheer number of birds was once again dazzling. There has been a significant increase in Black-tailed Godwits since I did a similar count at the beginning of the month with at least 500 today. Must have been at least 4500 Lapwing and the Brents were concentrating on Rookery Lane in the afternoon where there must have been 2500 there. 

Just I was heading home Andrew relocated a Glossy Ibis that had been reported on Birdguides earlier in the day so I headed over there and managed to see the bird before an altercation with the landowner meaning I didn't get a photo but did get a local patch tick. After a Peninsula life list audit with Ian while in Thailand, the Ibis now puts me on 205 HERE .

I also managed to get out for a couple of hours on Monday and managed to relocate the Ruff on Ferry that had been around while we were away. 

I'm having to use my old Canon 7D mark 2 and 300mm lens as my R7 and 100-500m lens are in for repairs. Finally got my bins back from repairs but now lost my camera. Hopefully will be all dapper for Spring.  

First-winter Caspian Gull, bird one, on Pagham Spit (above and below). A contrasting dark wing and relatively broad tail banded individual. 

First-winter Caspian Gull, bird number one again maybe or bird number two, on East Side  (above and two photos below), appears to have a less contrasting wing than the first photo, with more contrast and more markings on the tail and also looks less cleaner underparts but could be a distant photo effect in the first two images. The typical first-winter Caspian pale underwing, contrasting white head, dark shawl and pale grey upperparts with thin darks centres to the mantle and scapulars are shown in all the images 

Bird two or maybe bird three? This paler and shorter legged bird is clearly different to the birds above (also saw this at the same time as the other East side bird) with a very pale mantle and very clean below. Typical Caspian Gull features include the gleaming white head, dark shawl and four tone scheme with white head, grey mantle, darker coverts and black primaries.

Glossy Ibis (pic by Andrew House)

Pale-bellied Brent and Brents (above and below)

The Blackwit influx (above and below)

The Ruff on Ferry on Monday

Avocet

So far the only moth this year has been this Chestnut out of a couple of moth trapping attempts

Thailand wrap

The updated Ebird trip report with photos is HERE (6 sensitive species not shown publically). After the tidy up the final trip list for me was 404 (the group got about 413), managed to photograph 287 interesting species with 151 bird lifers, 18 species of mammals with 17 lifers, 5 herps (3 lifers) and about 48 species of leps HERE. 

The leps need more verification so my world selective taxa species list is approx 6253 (birds, mammals, herps, leps and dragonflies) including 3570 birds, 295 mammals, 146 herps, approx 1800 leps and 57 dragonflies. The main long term target is to get to 5000 birds (approx half the world's birds) and 10,000 pan species. IGoTerra lists HERE. 

Another fantastic trip with Wise Birding that specialises in bird and mammal trips for serious birders/naturalists and can't wait for the next one! Thanks to Colin Bushell and Deng our guides and for good company from the crew. 

Thailand landscapes

A few landscape and habitat shots that we visited of our adventure. 

Chiang Dao Temple and Wildlife Sanctuary

Views over the Doi Pha Hom Pok National Park (above and below) 

Views of Inthanon National Park (above and below) 

Cloud forest at Inthanon NP

Forktail habitat

Gardens and prunus blossom in the Northern National Parks 

Rice paddies (above) and salt pans (below)

Thailand other wildlife

Moth trapping opportunities were pretty limited and even when I did manage to get the trap out in habitat it was surprisingly quiet. In fact it was pretty quiet on the butterfly front. Apparantely the peak time for leps is during the early rainy season in April time and it's pretty quiet this time of year- cooler and drier. Most of the moth trapping I did was on the balcony of the hotel rooms which was pretty limited.

Also had a few herps but overall it was really quiet on that front too with no snake sightings and just a few lizards and a few frogs calling which I-Nat has tentatively identified as Black-striped Frog.

I-Nat observations HERE. About 55 species of leps and 5 species of herp. A few tentative ids and photos below. 

Tokay Gecko

Common Sun Skink 

Water Monitor and Indian Cormorant 

Swinhoe's Striated Hawkmoth 

Handmaiden moth

Eressa confinis

Arguda sp

Ornate Hydrisis moth

Common Awl

Chabula acamasalis

Paris Peacock Swallowtail

Red-based Jezebel

Common Jester

Rafflesiacae sp (Plantnet says Hermit's Spitton, Sapria himalayana)