Lettuce planting all day today but managed to get out for an hour and the end of the day and it was well worth it. At Lidsey by the railway, a male Whinchat on the back fence and a male Ring Ouzel along the hedge line. As I was walking a back, a Great White Egret flew over heading south; good views but not for long sadly. I'm not sure where it can be heading?

At the sewage farm, hundreds of Swallows, Sand Martins & House Martins feeding over the tanks near "Chiffchaff hedge". Completely not bothered by my presence they fed constantly whilst I was there.


Hirundines:

Orange Tip, Green-Veined White, Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Comma & Peacock butterflies all out round the orchard late morning. Last night there were Common Pipistrelle bats all along the lane and several really close whilst I was finishing up for the day.

Wasn't quite sure what was going on at Titchfield Haven today!

As I was in the area, and although I've already seen the Greater Yellowlegs, when a report of it being present on Birdguides came up I thought I'd go and  have another look at this fine bird. On arrival I bumped into quite a few people I know who all said that it hadn't been seen all day and that the report might be of a Greenshank! Apparently the "Greater Yellowlegs" had disappeared into some reeds and emerged, as if by magic as someone once said, a Greenshank. I had no way of knowing the veracity of this of course but it was enough for me to decide not to bother.

Later in the day a tweet to Titchfield Haven from a NGB asking whether the GLegs was still present was met with a "Yes" (direct quote) despite at least one seasoned twitcher also tweeting it had not been seen all afternoon...

And another tweet from Titchfield Haven thus:
"as well as greater yellowlegs, lots of activity today: arctic skua, little tern arctic tern, eider, bar-tailed godwit, whimbrel" (sic)

Interesting as the latter birds were all seen on a sea-watch from Hill Head 09:15-11:00 (source Goingbirding.co.uk).

Gets better.."we also have" : Pale-bellied Brent and Yellow Wagtail,..these were also seen at Hill Head on the sea-watch but they were added to the list by the "Titchfield Tweeter".

Rather like saying everything seen at Selsey Bill is present at Medmerry!

Make of it what you will!

In lighter news, I found a female Ring Ouzel, a singing Nightingale and plenty of Whitethroats at a location on the South Downs this afternoon whilst surveying for butterflies.

The Little Ringed Plovers at West Mead hide, Pulborough Brooks RSPB are showing ridiculously well and it now looks like they may well breed there.

Little Ringed Plovers:

Speckled Wood:

Speckled Wood, looks like a female ssp. tircis:

"Twitched" the International Space Station tonight, good fun too!

Also Orange Tip, Peacock, Brimstone, Large White & Small White around the farm today and good numbers of clacking Blackcaps.

Two Hoopoes in West Sussex today, both in private gardens with no access being granted reminded me of something..Back in 1987 when I was a tender...well let's just say younger than I am now with considerably longer and more colourful hair and rock 'n' roll a plenty going on, we had a Hoopoe on the lawn at our place in Oving. It stayed all morning until an unfortunate incident with a local cat led to its sad demise; I still remember watching it from the front room window no more than ten feet away. And so although it would be great to see a Hoopoe again this year (saw last year's one at Climping) I can at least rest easy that I don't need a Hoopoe either for a Sussex tick or bizarrely even for a garden tick!


Hoopoe at Climping 2014:

Not much going on today. Seawatching was slow but three Little Terns and a fairly close Red-Throated Diver were something to look at. At Medmerry, five Spoonbills together but not a lot else other than a flock of 100+ Linnets.

A bit of a mad day... Black-Winged Stilt, Redstarts, Pied Flys, Sedge Warblers, buckets of Willow Warblers... not sure who found the Stilt (ta to AH for the text) but thanks to GH & C&ME for finding the birds at Northcommon Farm, PD for telling me where the Grasshopper Warbler was (even though I dipped it!), the chap who showed me the Whinchat in his scope..the bloke who said the Pied Fly was showing well in Southampton when it wasn't (did later apparently!), the Short-Eared Owl for ending the day on a high and Uncle Tom Cobley and all, cracking day! What's in store for tomorrow! (Work you idiot, you spent most of today birding!)



Black-Winged Stilt:

Pied Flycatcher:

Redstart:

Willow Warbler:

Short-Eared Owl:

A couple of other bits from Pulborough, a Nuthatch and a male Blackcap:



Nuthatch:

Blackcap:

At Selsey Bill this evening for not a lot but a velvety looking dark phase Arctic Skua was good to see.

Out-in-the-open views of Nightingales at Pulborough RSPB today, many thanks to ARK for the info:


Nightingale:

Tweeted the photos of the Scarce Tortoiseshell to a few organisations this afternoon, one of whom saw fit to edit the tweet to remove the "@organicbirder" (ie: my credit) part and re-tweeted without any credit to me..ho hum.

Scarce Tortoiseshell at Pulborough short video


Scarce Tortoiseshell:

Not a bad day at Selsey for me, Black-Throated Diver, Black Redstart, Little Gull & Sedge Warbler all being year ticks, plenty of Brent Geese through too.



Great Black-Backed Gull:

Fulmar:

Brent Geese:

Big thanks to Jan Charteris, George Kinnard and George's grandad for finding and then re-finding the Scarce Tortoiseshell butterfly at Pulborough RSPB and for then tipping me off about its re-appearance today. Dipped it yesterday but not today! Absolutely awesome views! Pics and video to follow.

At home on the farm, a male Blackcap on the Ivy and a beautiful acredula sp. Willow Warbler. There's a picture of one, or a good candidate, from a few days ago here:

http://thenaturequest.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/charleston-reedbed.html

Migrant!?! A female Common Redstart was a surprise going from bush to bush in a garden of a house in Church Lane, Oving this morning. Dipped the Scarce Tortoiseshell at Pulborough RSPB this afternoon, hopefully it'll be out & about tomorrow! Crag Martin on the IOW obviously en route tomorrow too...

A tweet from HR announcing a Great White Egret over the Sidlesham Ferry  Pool got me out of bed this morning. Seen going over the pool & sluice surely it must have dropped into the harbour...well I couldn't re-find it; a few bits around the gorse on the harbour path though including my first Willow Warbler of the year but no GWE. Bet it's there on Monday!

Took the bike down to Medmerry where I bumped into PH who put me onto the Little Ringed Plovers on the Stilt pools. The usual Spoonbill was also present along with 19 Avocets. At the back of the pools a Short-Eared Owl was  put up by a lost mountain biker and then by a lad on the path! This evening in Oving a Snipe flew over whilst I was sorting potatoes.


Spoonbill:

Short-Eared Owl:

Little Ringed Plover:

Up early today due to a hyperactive toddler...but managed to escape to the Selsey area for a while later!

Stopped at the Ferry pool at Sidlesham but not much other than forty Shovelers, a few Shelducks and some Redshanks though there was a brief Kingfisher on the Long Pool. JM stopped in his van to give news that a Barn Owl had been a regular early morning visitor too but not today alas.

A Church Norton, a Blackcap, Wheatear and Whimbrel were the highlights. Also a pair of Grey Partridges and a Great Spotted Woodpecker here. At Warner Paddocks, two Red-Legged Partridges.

Selsey Bill best bits were roughly 13 Wheatears and 14 (!) Great Northern Divers plus my first Swallows of the year.

Whimbrel:

Wheatears:

Great Northern Divers:

On Easter Saturday, a few Swallows & Sand Martins on Ivy Lake and also my first House Martin of the year. Dipped the Black Redstart at Climping but a nice bit of viz-mig with both Wheatears and Meadow Pipits arriving whilst I was there, also a few Sanderling on the beach.


Wheatear:

Sanderling:

As usual at the moment not a great deal on Westhampnett Pit, but a Grey Wagtail on one of the pontoons was something to look at for five minutes; will have to see if I can sneak a look at Shopwyke Pit some time. I couldn't find much at Ivy Lake in ten minutes there except a Cetti's Warbler, a pair of Long-Tailed Tits and half a dozen Chiffchaffs.



Long-Tailed Tit:

Cetti's Warbler: Shows the limitations of bridge cameras on auto and the person using it!

Seems appropriate at the moment:

Subhumans: From the Cradle to the Grave