Birds in Abundance at Church Norton

After waking up, seeing blue skies and it being surprisingly not too cold we made the hour journey to Selsey to go to Church Norton. I was quite pleased to see there had been a Long-Tailed Duck and Slavonian Grebes sighted there recently.

After quickly stopping off at Pagham Harbour Visitor Centre, there was quite a lot of Wigeon and Teal on Ferry Pool as well as a large group of Lapwing. On the feeders by the visitor centre there were a small group of Goldfinch. 

We then made our way to Church Norton, where with my scope I could see a large group of about 50 Oystercatcher along with around 15 Cormorant. It was also a surprise to see over 100 Brent Geese as last time I visited, a few weeks ago, I didn't see one!

Brent Geese
There were also lots of Turnstone which were hidden amongst the waterways of the mudflats and the grasses that were growing on them.There were also quite a few Grey Plover. Curlew where also quite high in numbers as they probed the mud for tiny morsels.

Curlew
After asking a few birders if they had seen the Long-Tailed Duck, they told me it was hanging around the wall of the mouth of the harbour, however unfortunately I couldn't see it anywhere! However I did spot a Slavonian Grebe not too far out to sea before it flew west.

Slavonian Grebe

Slavonian Grebe
Whilst sitting on the beach, Turnstone were running up and down the beach and when I slowly moved closer to them they didn't fly off, so I took this opportunity to try and get some good photos of them. Here are the results:
Turnstone

Turnstone
On the way back a Kestrel was hovering above the harbour and I spotted a single Redshank.

Redshank





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