Just Fledged: Pagham Harbour with the Ashdown Bird Group

Saturday 5th June 2021

Pagham Harbour, Sussex

Ashdown Bird Group

For our second outing of the year we visited the RSPB reserve at Pagham Harbour near Chichester. We were rewarded with some excellent birding with over 60 species seen, including most of our target birds. The weather was fabulous with bright sunshine and a very light breeze. During the long walks everyone took the chance to get reacquainted after what has been a very long and hard pandemic.

Our starting point was the Visitor Centre where we took in the Ferry Pool before making the long walk to Church Norton. After lunch we retraced our steps back to the cars and then relocated to the North Wall for our final session.

The target species were Little Terns, Cattle Egrets and, toughest of all, Roseate Terns, all of which had been seen recently on the reserve.

Visitor Centre and Ferry Pool

From the outset things looked very promising with Mediterranean Gulls flying overhead and background music provided by the Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Greenfinches as we assembled in the car park.

Mediterranean Gull

courtesy of Alison Playle

The Avocets were the pick of the species seen at the Ferry Pool, closely followed by Gadwall and Redshank.
Along the Ferry Channel we heard and occasionally saw the Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers, caught a glimpse of a Cetti's Warbler as it changed position in the reeds and had really good views of several Reed Buntings.
On the water we had great views of a Little Grebe in full summer plumage and, best of all, a family of Shelducks floating along just ahead of us.

Little Grebe

courtesy of Alison Playle

We expected to see Common Whitethroats in the hedges as we moved along but we had a real bonus when, after some hesitation, we identified the sound of a Lesser Whitethroat just before we caught sight of it in the nearby bushes.
There was one mystery bird. It made a very loud screech that no-one recognised as it flew past us and landed in the low bushes near the water. It caught us completely by surprise and, try as we may, we didn't hear or see it again.

What could have been a very long slog had turned out to be so eventful and very interesting, fully justifying our decision not to use the cars and cause further chaos with parking at Church Norton.

Church Norton

We settled down to enjoy a well-earned lunch by the bench seating at Church Norton with our attention fully focussed on Tern Island ahead of us in the distance.

It was fairly easy to pick out the Sandwich Terns but the heat haze made it more difficult to ID the less numerous Common Terns.
After a while we were able to spot the first of our target species when 3-4 Little Terns were seen. Not the best of views but definitely present.
We zoomed in on one tern as the most likely candidate for a Roseate Tern but rejected the idea after further investigation. We were unable to locate this species although several were reported here a few hours later.
Swallows and Sand Martins were around as was the occasional Swift.
The Mediterranean Gulls looked splendid in their summer uniform. We also saw a few Common Gulls among the many gulls present in the area.

North Wall and Honer Reservoir

After returning to our vehicles at the Visitor Centre we made the 20 minute drive to Church Lane in Pagham village and walked to the North Wall area of the harbour where we were hoping to see Cattle Egrets in the fields nearby.

As we walked along the footpath we could see cattle in the distance but no egrets.
However we did see a pair of Great-crested Grebes, in the channel in front of us, with 2 chicks riding on the back of the female - such a wonderful sight!

Great-crested Grebe

courtesy of Alison Playle

We decided to head north in search of the cattle and then, hopefully, find the Cattle Egrets. As it turned out we got it back to front, finding the Cattle Egrets first and then the cattle. The egrets - 2 of them - were in the long grass of a field near the main footpath so we were able to get close up.

Cattle Egret

courtesy of Alison Playle

Behind the high trees in an adjacent field, we saw a 3rd Cattle Egret fly down and land among the 20+ cows.

We were now feeling really good after finding our second target species, even if our strategy had proved somewhat fortuitous. A quick look at Honer Reservoir proved fruitless so we made the long journey back to the car to conclude our visit.

Other species of note that we saw included Buzzard, Red Kite, Kestrel, Little Egret.

As well as the birds, we saw a good selection of butterflies, dragonflies, heard the noisy frogs and even found a Slow worm on the return leg from Church Norton.