Goshawk Pagham Harbour

Another Monday and another day in the field. I contemplated going to twitch the Long-tailed Shrike but the thought of five hours in the car put me off. I've already seen 13 Long-tailed Shrikes this year when in Thailand and seen many in Asia before but I do need it for my Western Palearctic list but I still couldn't muster up the energy.  If it's still there on Thursday there's a chance I might meet up with mates to twitch it which will be more fun. 

Anyway so I decided to do the usual rounds locally. I only had the morning becuase once Holly and the kids found out I wasn't going twitching I was roped in for afternoon activities. So I set out early and ahead of the high tide checked out Mill Lane and Ferry and then over to East side for the rising tide. I met the North wall crew over there and then Andrew arrived too but between all of us we couldn't find anything too exciting. The juvenile Spoonbill which arrived a few days ago was still around, as were the 3 Spotted Redshanks, there was a Yellow Wagtail in the saltmarsh but surprisingly fewer waders than earlier in the autumn HERE. 84 species of over 1500 individuals. 

I decided to go to Pagham Spit to check out any high tide roosting birds there and the others guy went back. I wasn't expecting too much and indeed there were only a few Ringed Plover and Dunlin on the gravel islands but there were very large numbers of Med Gulls (about 750) and an adult and two juv Little Terns still. I started walking back beginning to think I should have gone twitching and also contemplating the relatively low rewards with local birding over the last many weeks which I'd also discussed with Andrew. Apart from the Ring-necked Parakeet (!) I hadn't seen any local scarcities or rarities since mid-June. 

Then suddenly all the Med Gulls and Sandwich Terns roosting on the spit islands went up calling loudly which started spreading to the harbour too. I suspected a raptor maybe a Peregrine and then caught sight of an accipter only a few tens of meters away and relatively low too. A quick look in the bins and something wasn't right so I quickly went for the camera and started firing off shots and through the lens could just about make out streaks on the breast. I followed the bird as it went low over the harbour putting everything up, causing a massive commotion. A quick check of the photos confirmed what I was suspecting- a juvenile Goshawk. It wasn't a massive bird so presumably a juvenile male. I put the news out and then saw it again heading towards Norton and then updated the news but lost it after that. It seemed to fly off over Norton towards Selsey. 

Apparantely only the 2nd record of Goshawk this century for the Peninsula so a good Peninsula tick and unlike Long-tailed Shrike also a world year tick, now on 904 HERE. 'Dare-to-be-dull' and staying local paid off again. 

Juvenile Goshawk (all images above)

Juvenile Spoonbill and Whimbrel

Adult moulting Spotted Redshank

Black-tailed Godwits and Redshanks- Redshank was the only wader today that have increased in number

Another Striped Hawkmoth last night . Also another smart Clouded Buff, Bordered Straw, 3 Vestals and a Palpita vitrealis. 

Colin Pratt says this is White-line Snout which will be a lifer (obsidentify says a Pinion-streaked). Now on 485 for the garden year and 699 for all time. Fingers crossed for an Eastern Bordered Straw for moth number 700.