Selsey - Church Norton - Fishbourne Creek

This morning we met at 8.30am on the tip of Selsey Bill for a session on sea watching, first to come into sight was 10 or more Common Scoter on the sea plus a couple of Great Crested Grebes along the shore a Mediteranean Gull in Spring plumage joined some Black Headed Gulls,and a Lesser Black Backed Gull, a walk along the beach soon found the wintering Black Redstart and then off shore a Great Northern Diver gave us good views along with several Red Breasted Mergansers.

Next stop was Church Norton with the tide out there was little to be seen on sea, in the harbour the usual waders plus a large flock of Golden Plover but no sign of the hoped to see Avocets, but amoungst the Brent Geese a Black Brant was spotted, and so off to Fishbourne Creek and lunch in the car park of Apuldram Church looking for the Firecrest with no luck.

At the creek after a little while searching amoungst the Dunlin, Paul spotted the Little Stint flying with the Dunlin showing the Stint to be alot smaller. A search amoungst the hundreds of Brents didn't show any strangers but a Spotted Redshank was seenamoungst the common Redshank, followed by a couple of Wimbrels, and several Pintail. A walk along the salt marsh didn't put up any Jack Snipe but a Common Buzzard was seen perched in a tree.

There was still a couple hours of light left so we then headed off to Ivy Lakes on the way home hoping to see the Whooper Swans but again with no luck but we did see the male Scaup.

So all in all we had yet another good day 3 more species to my list, and a reminder that what you expect to see may not happen.