Bean Goose

Tundra Bean Goose as I predicted (see post below) with White-fronted Geese at Pulborough.

Smew & LTD

I managed to get a lot done on the farm on Sunday (3,000 garlic hand planted!) which gave me an excuse to get  away for a few hours this morning. Initially I was going to do the Medmerry beach trudge but a redhead Smew came up on twitter so decided to go for that. Found by Steve Chastell this morning an exchange of tweets confirmed that the north-east corner was the favoured spot...but after an hour of scanning with the scope no sign...

...so I decided to try from a spot I'd noticed on the west bank and on arrival found another birder checking the water. Still no Smew but I lucked on to the Long-tailed Duck by the sailing club and we viewed that for a while before Carey, for that was the birder's name, pointed out a cracking male Goosander further up the lake. A consultation later and we were checking out another spot along the bank when fortunately he spotted the Smew with a few Tufted Ducks on the far side by the reeds, nice one Mr. Lodge! It stayed distant all the time I was there so this shot was the best I could do.

Smew:

Swan Geese

Friday was a poor day for me, not able to find much of anything really. No Siberian Chiffchaff at Lidsey, no Bewick's Swans at Amberley or Burpham and no Swan Geese at Rackham viewpoint; just as well I was thwarted by failed railway gates at Lake Lane on my try as the Cattle Egret nearby wasn't seen that day either!

On Saturday I was a man with limited time so a very quick run up to Amberley to right yesterday's wrongs was about all I could manage. On arriving at Rackham viewpoint I was given the "look up & down and who are you" so beloved of some birders but was at least told that there was no sign of the White-fronted Geese or the Swan Geese & that a Marsh Harrier & Peregrine were out on the brooks. After a quick look through the Geese (a Bean Goose suspect in there I thought but distance was an issue-perhaps someone else can pick it up) I headed back up to the Hurst Cottages viewpoint at Amberley. Success here straight away as upon setting up the scope and looking into it the two Swan Geese were in view-yes I know they're feral/dodgy but still nice to see in a wild setting-with ten White-fronted Geese nearby along with the Greylag & Canada Geese. Honour being partially satisfied (still to find my Sibe...) I was done for the day.

Swan Geese x 2 nearly visible through the murk and at extreme distance for the camera in the centre left of picture, heads down...sorry best I could do!!:

It was very murky on Saturday morning, this was the view from by the cottages. A few White-fronted Geese are just visible on the right here:

Scaup & Great Northern Diver

Another Scaup today this time the one on Ivy Lake at Chichester. It was nice and close to the bank with a Tufted Duck for comparison. Also there a Great Northern Diver so my hunch paid off that a storm-swept bird might be present!

Scaup:

Scaup & Tufted Duck:

Great Northern Diver:

Scaup or not??

It's that time of year where alas the Scaup controversy must rear its (possibly tufted, possibly not) head. I had heard that there had been a Scaup on the big pool at Marsh Farm near Lake Lane at Barnham and went for a look today. Here is the bird, there are a few caveats but not many...basically, pays your money takes your choice...

Scaup:

Looks fairly good for male Scaup IMHO: no tuft, rounded head, black on bill restricted to nail and its immediate surrounds (cf. Advanced Bird ID Handbook P.23), bulkier than tufted with prominent chest,  vermiculation on flanks, highest point of head on front of crown, head wholly dark and tertials wholly dark, scapulars grey flecked. I suppose concern could be lack of "bulk".

Decent head shape head-on thought perhaps could be heavier jowled but just OK I think.

Picture showing possibly more black on bill than I would like (angle doesn't help here)
and faint banding but juveniles tend to show "smudgy triangular dark tip but less sharp band than Tufted Duck" cf British Birds P.51 for details.

White-fronted Geese

ARK had handily flagged up that the White-fronted Geese that had been around Pulborough were now viewable from Amberley by Hurst Cottages so I drove up today to find...they'd moved. However. a quick jaunt in the Saxo down the road found a footpath from where the Geese various could be viewed and they were indeed present. Difficult to say how many but looked good for nine-ten and included the very well barred one too; distance was an issue for pictures as you can see.

White-fronted Geese:

Birds, various

Some form the last few days at Pagham Harbour.

Red-breasted Merganser:

...and Grey Heron:

Short-eared Owl that came out of the reeds and was mobbed by a Kestrel & a Carrion Crow before diving back down:

Long-tailed Duck at Church Norton:

Slavonian Grebes, ten at Church Norton beach:

Ringed Plover at Selsey Bill in poor weather:

Long-tailed Duck, Goosanders & Great Grey Shrike

After a not particularly good start at Selsey Bill, few good birds turned up in West Sussex today: Great Grey Shrike at Waltham Brooks, Long-tailed Duck, Goosanders and Slavonian Grebe at Church Norton.

Great Grey Shrike: Reported as flighty but I lucked out and found it from the path leading to the SF looking over the railway lines!

Long-tailed Duck: Initially found by AH in the harbour and later seen on the open sea by the harbour entrance with SR & JD too.

Goosanders: pleased with these, I usually have to traipse round looking for them and these were sat on the water when we arrived this morning. A drake also reported at Petworth Park today but all the ones (five in total) at CN were redheads.

Slavonian Grebe: But no sign of the Red-necked Grebe today.

Black Redstart

Not a lot for the last few days although it was good to see everyone at Selsey Bill on Saturday with the highlight birdwise for me being a Great Northern Diver. Later a Black Redstart, rather a sorry looking specimen actually, was at east Medmerry. I missed a Red-throated Diver at Climping today (had a couple of Guillemots close-ish on the sea yesterday) but had a good time this afternoon with the wife & son at QE2 park watching winter thrushes, notably some gorgeous Redwings.