Waders and Winter Heliotrope at Ella Nore

Yesterday the tide was high at around noon and a stiff south wind was driving the sea up into Chichester Harbour sending great waves crashing over The Winner and Stocker’s Sand.  When the tide is high like that huge flocks of waders take refuge on Ella Nore, a shingle bank on the east shore of the harbour.  Most of them were hidden from view as I watched from the waterside path but every now and then a huge flock would take off and wheel back and forth over the water.  As they flew west they turned their pale undersides towards me and the whole flock flickered and flashed white.  Then as the turned back to fly east their duller grey upper sides showed and they almost vanished against the grey background of sea and sky.  Each time they flew back and forth a few times and then settled back down again out of sight on the far side of the Nore.  Why do they take off and fly about in these great flocks?  My first reaction is to look for a predator as flocking behaviour is done to confuse them, but I did not see one on this occasion and rarely does that turn out to be the cause.  Perhaps it is simply a jockeying for space as the rising tide crowds more birds into a smaller space or the arrival of more birds.  

It is not easy to identify birds when they are flying back and forth in a huge flocks on the move like that at a distance, but there were Dunlin, Turnstones, Ringed Plover and Grey Plover.  Additionally, on the shingle and not taking part in the flight were Shelduck, Curlew and Oystercatchers.  A solitary Little Egret sat on the bank in the salt marsh between the Nore and the shoreline.  

As I stood watching I became aware of a strong vanilla scent in the air around me and looked down and saw that I was standing next to a clump of Winter Heliotrope in full flower.  This is a naturalised plant that is now quite widespread.  It is one of those plants with a contrarian lifestyle, flowering when few other plants do.  Pollinating insects are few and far between at this time of year, but if the heliotrope is the only one in flower then it will have few competitors for their attention.  However on this occasion it was not the only plant in bloom.  All along the shoreline path Gorse was abundant and in full flower, a glorious sight on a progressively gloomy midwinter day.

Cormorants on the pylons

Today the cormorants on the electricity pylons in the Adur Valley near Steyning had abandoned the topmost rungs and cables where they normally roost and had retreated to the spars at the three lowest levels.  With the wind gusting up to 30 mph and promise of worse to come it is not surprising that they were avoiding the more exposed heights.

These have long been a popular roost for Cormorants.  This morning there were about 35 birds on one pylon and a few more on fence posts below.  I have seen up to 150 birds on the three pylons they favour.  Normally they occupy the top spars and cables.  They spread themselves out, maintaining a spacing of about one metre between each bird and its nearest neighbour.  
They seem very quarrelsome and I guess the spacing keeps each bird beyond reach of a lunge from its neighbours beak.  

They fish in the river and are a nuisance at the local angling ponds, but most probably spend their time out at sea and they can be seen at dusk flying up the valley singly or in flocks of up to a dozen or so to spend the night on the pylons.  Some mornings when we are sitting in bed drinking our morning cup of tea we see small groups in V-formation heading back down to the sea. They fish in the river and are a nuisance at the local angling ponds, but most probably spend their time out at sea and they can be seen at dusk flying up the valley singly or in flocks of up to a dozen or so to spend the night on the pylons.  Some mornings when we are sitting in bed drinking our morning cup of tea we see small groups in V-formation heading back down to the sea.

Snow Bunting in the garden!

A snow bunting is not a bird I would expect to see in my garden, but we had a brief visit from one today.  It took us a while to work out work out what it was because it is not a bird you expect to see in an apple tree.  We have been recording the birds that visit our garden for over ten years now and this is a first.  Small numbers of them overwinter in a few sites along the Sussex coast and this one might have been heading for Widewater at Lancing where a pair spent a couple of months last winter.  This one seemed to be hanging out with a flock of chaffinches and soon headed out of the garden towards the trees around Bramber Castle. I will be looking out for sightings of one on the beach in the next few days.