Gulls

A look at Fishbourne Creek was disturbed by an absolute idiot of a dog-walker letting her charge put the gulls and geese up...but present after the melee were 100s of Common Gulls and few Mediterranean & Lesser Black-backed Gulls...

Cattle Egrets

There were 22 Cattle Egrets in "Misery Martin's Farm" at Hunston (they hate birders looking at their fields... I wonder why that would be...I have no idea...)

Long-tailed Duck

The Long-tailed Duck was still at the Lavant outflow and in the gull roost were three Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a Yellow-legged Gull and c.600 Common Gulls.

Long-tailed Duck:

Red-throated Divers

It remains quite offshore at Selsey Bill with no real auk passage and just a few divers moving through but not in any numbers.


Red-throated Divers:

Ivy Lake

A look at Ivy Lake in the drizzle produced c.40 Herring Gulls, c.50 Pochards, a dozen Tufted Ducks and a pair of Shoveler but not a lot else.

Still lots of tree cutting and shrub clearance going on... hopefully it will settle down as it's been dire there for the past year...

A quick look at the Bill found it mist-bound with little to no visibility...

Red-legged Partridges

Nothing of note at Selsey Bill but two Red-legged Partridges, new for year, were on the stubble maize fields at Reedy Marsh.

Red-legged Partridge:

Chifchaffs etc. etc.

Considerably more luck today...a Raven at Summer lane, a Merlin at the Long Pool and again at Brimfast Lane & a Black-throated Diver at the Bill were all new for the year and were welcome boosts for the list.

At Pagham SF there were c.20 Chiffchaffs & at first I thought there were two of "classic" tristis Siberian Chiffchaffs, which show no yellow in the upperparts.. but on this second bird..note the very pale underparts, brownish cheeks, long supercilium..but also the apparent hint of yellow at the eyebrow...this is interesting though...and both pale birds did respond to Siberian Chiffchaff call so...not sure!

"The problem is that tristis knows many variety, with most ‘aberrant’ birds showing green tones in mantle. Some even have some yellow at the eyebrow (especially in front of the eye). It’s not clear where the exact plumage boundaries lie between such birds and other taxa or hybrids between them"

...full article here: birdingnetherlands.com/blog/identification-of-siberian-chiffchaff