Pagham Harbour Entrance

This is the entrance to Pagham Harbour as we saw it on our last visit (see post of 19 December).  This is near where we saw the Goldeneye.  You can see the end of the shingle spit that has built up over the last 30 years or so on the far right.  This has pushed the harbour entrance far to the east where it has approached new sea defence works in the form of massive breakwaters.  The tidal outflow is being deflected by the first of these and is cutting in to the shore, causing an increase in erosion which is being remedied by large scale shingle movements.

For more photos of Pagham Harbour see http://www.flickr.com/photos/112963374@N07/11670264466/

Floods in the Adur Valley

Here is a shot of the floods in the Adur Valley following the recent spell of heavy rain.

 It might look a bit alarming, but these fields are supposed to flood.  This is what they have always done.  They have reduced quite a lot in the few days since this was taken and from a wildlife point of view you could argue that the drainage is too efficient and keeping the water in would create some nice wetland habitats.  But the farmers would not like it.

East Head

The brilliant sunshine and blue sky brought out the crowds at East Head yesterday.  The crowds of people and dogs on the beach did not put off flocks of up to fifty Sanderling feeding vigorously at the water's edge at low tide.  They skittered back and forth, probing into the sand with their beaks and pulling up nice juicy lugworms.  It was not just the kids and dogs running around that they had to put up with; Common and Black-headed Gulls were crowding in looking for the chance to snatch a worm away and sometimes they succeeded.  Why can't they get their own lunch?  You have to admire the sheer tenacity of these little birds as they make the most of the opportunity to feed while the tide is at its lowest and the sand is uncovered.  Among them were two birds with rings.  Both had a blue ring on the right leg and one had a white ring on the left leg and the other had a red ring on its left leg.

There was little to see on the dunes apart from a small flock of Skylarks and that is probably due to the high level of disturbance on this Christmas holiday.  Snowshill was also quiet with small numbers of Wigeon, Teal and Lapwing.  With the tide out there were plenty of feeding opportunities elsewhere.  Work on the new sea wall here has ended with some tree-planting and landscaping.  It should now start to settle in and it will be interesting to see what effect it has on bird numbers. There was a huge flock of Brent Geese on the meadows and many of these moved round to fields north.of Roman Landing.  It is one of the great sights and sounds of Sussex wildlife to see and hear these flocks on the move.

We walked round to Ella Nore, but with the tide out so far and all the birds feeding at the water's edge it was hard to make out what they all were, but there were lots of Dunlin, some Curlew, Redshank, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher and Shelduck.  While most waders feed on the most recently uncovered mud at the water's edge, Bar-tailed Godwits prefer to get right in the water and wade about.  There were no birds on Ella Nore itself, not surprising as the tide was out.  When it is in this gets very crowded and it is fascinating to watch flocks flying in and out and struggling to establish a space for themselves.

Midwinter Chiffchaff

After walking for a couple of miles without seeing anything other than crows and woodpigeons, we started to descend from the Downs through the woods at the top of Steyning Coombe, when we heard first a Nuthatch and then a couple of Goldcrests.  These were very confiding and kept us amused with their tumbling flight for several minutes.  A Treecreeper then appeared and ran up a couple of nearby trees and then a Great Spotted Woodpecker landed on a tree above our heads.  All the time we could hear the Nuthatch bashing away at  a nut in the background.  All of this happened in the space of about five minutes and then as we walked away I caught a glimpse of a small bird in the undergrowth.  It appeared and disappeared and reappeared and finally came into full view.  It can be rather baffling when you encounter a bird out of context or out of season and so it was a good thing that I had such a long, clear view of it so that I can be confident it was a Chiffchaff.  It is not unknown for them to overwinter in this country and it is becoming more and more common, but it is the first I have recorded in December. The weather has been very mild so far this winter, so it is not surprising that birds like this are overwintering.

Pagham Harbour

We started from the Church Lane end and started to walk south down the eastern side and a Peregrine flew over our heads and headed at a leisurely gliding pace over the harbour towards church Norton and disappeared.  There were plenty of large birds: Teal, Wigeon, Brent Geese, Curlew and Shelduck, but nothing there that would make a meal for a Peregrine, so it just carried on over to the other side.
The tide was low, but clearly it had been very high recently, judging by the height of the strand line.  Along this side of the harbour it was striking just how high it had been, but nearer the mouth of the harbour a fine line of debris showed just how high the tide had reached.

We sat on the shingle bank near the harbour entrance to eat our lunch.  The view of the sea is now almost totally obscured by the shingle bar that has spread eastwards across the harbour entrance creating a long channel parallel to the shoreline.  It resembles the mouth of the River Adur at Shoreham with the great shingle spit of Shoreham Beach.  This is a much larger feature than the Pagham spit, but Pagham does demonstrate how quickly these features can appear and, presumably, disappear.

As we sat there we could see three small ducks repeatedly diving.  They were small, brown and a long way off and I could not make out what they were at the distance, but there was something about the shape of the head...  Then suddenly they were joined by a forth landing beside them with a splash.  It was a male Goldeneye, easy to identify with its bold black and white markings.  It immediately started to display, tipping its head back and then stretching its neck out in front.  The females did not shoe much interest, and it eventually gave up and started to dive for food with the rest of them.

For photos of Pagham Harbour see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/112963374@N07/11689415403