I continued exploring the parts of the Peninsula that I haven't reached yet. Today I did Pagham rife and walked back round to North Wall. HERE . Highlights were 5 Corn Bunting in the direlect fields by the Pagham road with 35 Yellowhammers and the 3 White-fronts where around the fields and 2 Spotted Redshanks were in White's Creek.
Corn Buntings are generally strictly confined to the Ham area near Medmerry on the west side of the Peninsula and Andrew informs me that this is the first time in years they've been seen on the East side.
We took the kids with Sue to Arundel WWT this morning circum-navigating the flooded roads. This afternoon Sue and I checked out Ferry and then did Halseys to North Wall. 71 species of over 12,000 individuals! HERE. Les had found six Ruff on Honer 2 but when we got there, there were 10 birds and also a single bird was in with the Lapwings. The White-fronts were also flying around and then landed on the flooded fields and we also had the Spotted Redshank. 3 Marsh Harriers came into roost and 2 Egyptian Geese were a Peninsula year tick.
Sue is down for the weekend so we got a birding session this afternoon. We did the high tide pre-roost at East Side/Pagham Spit HERE. Seems like Dunlin numbers are increasing with an estimated 3000 birds and Grey Plovers at approx 400 but seemingly Knot numbers are lower with 200 and we didn't see any Golden Plovers which are definitely clearing out locally. There were at least 1000 Black-tailed Godwits flying around White's Creek and we counted 375 Great Black-backed Gulls and in with them were 10 Lesser Black-backs, a 3rd cycle and an adult Yellow-legged Gull and a first-winter Caspian-type Gull (a little distant to be certain). There was also a couple of Barwits in the roost. Just from that viewpoint across the harbour we estimated about 10,000 birds including a conservative 2000 Lapwing and 1500 Brents. The other guys had larger counts earlier on in the day HERE with 4000 Lapwings, 2500 Brents, 300 Golden Plover, 300 Wigeon, 100 Teal and Pintail, 250 Common Gulls (flocks have been flying over the garden recently too indicating some kind of movements occurring) and 50 Meds so there has to be around 14-15000 birds in the harbour now and that's not including any large numbers of Black-headed and Herring Gulls which could add another few thousand. The most obvious increases recently have been in Blackwit, Dunlin, Avocet, Common Gull and Med Gull.
On the way back we noticed that the Glossy Ibis was back in the traveller field with 6 Cattle Egret and soon after news broke of the Snow Bunting back at East Head so we headed off over there for the last hour of the day. Now on 112 for the Peninsula year list HERE.
Persistent rain and resulting flooding is putting the knackers on any lengthy birding sessions so I've been popping out in between and during showers over the last couple of days.
After failing to get any decent views or photos of Slavs since I've moved down here I decided to go and twitch the wintering bird at Platinum Jubilee Park nearby in Chichester. Amazing to see one in an urban tiny pond and there was a nice little supporting cast for an urban pond too including 3 Chiffchaff, 12 Reed Bunting, Water Rail and Stonechat.
I also managed to get out and check Ferry yesterday and then got driven back by the rain when I tried to check the Tramway and this morning I aborted a gulling session on East Side after heavy rain started.
So far, despite a couple of close calls, the water fortunately has only flooded the garden and patio and not the house (yet!), but several local roads are closed making it a bit of a mission getting on and off 'Sidlesham Island'.
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