I met up with Phil at Pagham Harbour's North Wall late afternoon and we ended up whiling away the evening. We dipped the Lapland Bunting but as the tide ebbed, revealing the mud, there was a pleasing array of waders to pick through in the distance. From our admittedly not ideal viewing position we picked out a Curlew Sandpiper, 20 Knot, a Common Sandpiper, seven Snipe, 55 Grey Plovers, 35 Ringed Plovers, a Turnstone, four Greenshanks, 80 Dunlin, 38 Lapwings, 19 Black-tailed Godwits, a Bar-tailed Godwit, 65 Oystercatchers, 60 Redshanks and 30 Curlew. An Osprey offered fantastic views as it played at fishing - my first of the year. 14 Pintail were also in the harbour, along with small flocks of Wigeon and Teal. Other birds included three Cattle Egrets, nine Great Crested Grebes, eight Little Egrets, 20 Great Black-backed Gulls, five Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a couple of Yellow Wagtails (I missed a big flock seen earlier), a Kingfisher, a Sparrowhawk, a Buzzard, five Mediterranean Gulls, a Cetti's Warbler, 80 Swallows, two Sand Martins, a Reed Bunting, a Wheatear and a Lesser Whitethroat.
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| Cattle Egret at Pagham Harbour |
