First Time Birding in a While

It's surprising how quickly the species of birds can change throughout the seasons. I haven't been birding in a few weeks now and when I arrived at Pagham Harbour nature reserve on Monday, after walking down to the start of the mudflats I was greeted with flocks of Wigeon and Teal, a real sign of the ever-approaching Winter. 

In the distance I just could about make out a flock of Avocet and Lapwing, flying back and forth. Walking back, I stopped off at the Ferry Pool hide, looking over the water, there were lots of Shelduck that were joined by more Wigeon and Teal. I could just about hear the high-pitched call of the Goldcrest just outside the hide, although it didn't make an appearance when I waited to try and get a photo. Also on the way back, a flock of Long-Tailed Tits made their appearance known with their 'pinging' call and a charm of goldfinch tried their best to fly against the relatively strong wind.

We then drove to Church Norton and sat on the beach for some lunch. Around 10 Brent Geese flew overhead as well as 5 or 6 Oystercatcher over the sea.

In the harbour there were a big flock, that looked like a murmuration from a distance, of Grey Plover, Dunlin, Black-Tailed Godwit and Redshank. Whilst standing on the path between the harbour and beach, lots of Dunlin, Oystercatcher and Redshank kept flying literally over our heads, they were so close you could hear their wingbeats!

Then 2 Godwits flew and landed in front of me, later identified by the people of twitter as Bar-Tailed Godwits, surprisingly a lifer for me! Also there were lots of curlew around, its bubbling call echoing as one flew across.

Bar-Tailed Godwits in flight

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Bar-Tailed Godwit

As I sat on a bench which overlooks the mudflats at Church Norton, a Kestrel hovered right above the people who were sat next me, they only realised when I told them! Other birds I saw included Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Little Egret, Linnet and Grey Heron.

P.S. Unfortunately now I won't be able to get out birding, ringing and to do photography (writing blog posts as well) much as school work is becoming more time-consuming because of GCSE's and I've also just recently got a weekend job. However any spare time I have will still be spent outdoors!