Tawny Owl

One was screeching away this evening in the ash trees, always around here this time of year.

Grey Phalarope & Little Stints

The seawatching has been poor really, surprising given the strength and direction, SW F6-7, of the wind but there's always a chance something like a Grey Phalarope will be blown in and so it proved when one was was well found by JBo late morning on the Ferry Pool; he's only a young chap so fair play to him for spotting and IDing it, put the olds to shame so it did!

Always a little distant for photos the bird spent its time on the left hand side out of the strong breeze-hopefully it might stay and come down to the road end. (Update: it didn't-no sign on Sunday!)

Grey Phalarope:

The pool has also hosted a pair of Little Stints recently which did show nice and close and were a popular attraction for many.

Little Stints:

Nothing to do with the above but I was sad to hear of the passing of Joe Harkness recently. Joe was a nice guy who had had his battles with depression and mental health over the years and who was the author of, among other works, Neurodivergent by Nature, a book discussing neurodivergence (something we know a fair bit about in this household...) and it's role(s) in conservation. 

I hope he is at peace now.

Cory's Shearwaters

Cory's Shearwater is a prized bird at the Bill and on Friday two were picked up by AH inside the Mile Basket heading west in leisurely fashion-interestingly I was sure I had another one early on but these really are the type of birds you need (at least) two observers for at the Bill!!! 

Otherwise there was a big westward movement of gulls and terns & a couple of Arctic Skuas whilst the next day brought even more Mediterranean Gulls past, 1300+, and a nice juvenile Little Gull. A look at the Severals didn't find a Wryneck again but on Saturday at least there were a few more birds around including a couple of Whinchats, two Wheatears on the beach and some young Peregrines scrapping overhead.

My log from Friday below (in the Selsey Blog order not the taxonomic one):

0600-1000hrs) (SW, F7)

Great Crested Grebe - 1os

Cory's Shearwater - 2W (0746hrs)

Gannet - 5E, 247W, 31os

Oystercatcher - 4W

Ringed Plover - 2W

Sanderling - 2E

Turnstone - 61

Arctic Skua - 2W

Mediterranean Gull - 139W

Black-headed Gull - 649W

Common Gull - 8W, 1os

Lesser Black-backed Gull - 5W

Great Black-backed Gull - 6W, 3os

Sandwich Tern - 8E, 728W, 20os

Common Tern - 3E, 154W

Little Tern - 1W

Black Tern - 3W

Swallow - 19W

House Martin - 5

Chicken-of-the-Woods

Surprised and indeed lucky to find this Sulphur Polypore (aka Chicken-of-the-Woods) on the water meadow oaks.

Puffin & Five-bearded Rockling

I've been lucky enough to see a few Puffins off Selsey Bill in past years and it was good to catch up with one on Sunday, a reasonably close bird heading west then east and west again inside and adjacent to the Mile Basket. A few Black Terns were also about and a Tree Pipit flew over the Oval Field.

At home the veg has perked up a bit after the rain and we're getting prepped to plant a lot of over-wintering onion sets to fill in any gaps left by the previously boiling conditions. Not much of note birdwise here but a Tree Pipit flew over and there seems to have been an uptick in finches. 

Also confirmed in the last few days was a Five-bearded Rockling which we had at Marloe Sands while on holiday, another fish mini-species for us.

Five-bearded Rockling pic by @beardybirder.bsky.social to give you an idea of what they're like, our one was a bit too quick for me to get a picture of!