Pagham Harbour with the East Grinstead RSPB Local Group

Saturday 22nd February 2025

Pagham Harbour, West Sussex

East Grinstead RSPB Local Group

(16 members present)

Recently, on 19th January, we visited the harbour's east side to see the three long-eared owls. Today, our attention turned to the west side, but this time, with no obvious star attraction on site.

We parked at the Information Centre and walked to the Ferry Hide where we looked over Siddlesham Ferry Pool.  Then we moved as far as the viewpoint on the Ferry Channel.  After lunch back at the Centre, we relocated to Church Norton, spending most of the time in the seated area overlooking the harbour before moving on to do some sea watching from the shingle beach.  

We saw an astonishing 70 bird species - nothing quite as rare as the long-eared owls, but including a few that were special in their own way and well worth the effort of coming this far to see.

Ferry Pool and Ferry Channel

The water levels in the pool were very high due to the heavy overnight rain, and the lack of mud meant there weren't many waders on show. To make matters worse, it was low tide when waders chose the vast muddy areas around the reserve rather than the pool.  

• On the pool, there were reduced numbers of the usual suspects - Shelduck, Mallard, Shoveler, Teal, Wigeon, etc.  A distant Marsh Harrier moved gracefully over the fields adjacent to the pool.
• There was a lot of activity at the feeders, behind the hide with Greenfinch and Chaffinch the pick of these birds.

Courtesy of Patrick Sullivan

Courtesy of Chris Harries

• The main attraction in the Ferry Channel was the lovely Kingfisher sitting on a block of concrete by the water's edge.

Courtesy of Patrick Sullivan

• Ian's picture below shows the situation as we moved towards the Ferry Channel

Courtesy of Ian Hodgson

• It was really good to see linnets as we walked along the narrow path.  
• Alastair drew our attention to a lovely yellowhammer and a lucky few got good views of it before it flew off.  
• Every now and then, our attention was drawn to the huge numbers of birds in the sky way down near the harbour entrance.  They created a fabulous display.  Chris caught the scene brilliantly.

Courtesy of Chris Harries

It was time to jump in the cars and head off to Church Norton to investigate these birds further and, more importantly, to try and find out what had put them up.

Church Norton

On our way out to the seated area on the spit we spotted two very interesting waders:-

• Sue drew our attention to a close Greenshank foraging in the mud and looking absolutely fabulous.

Courtesy of Patrick Sullivan

• Not far from the Greenshank was the local long-staying Whimbrel which was associating with some Curlew.

• It even put on a dance for us!

Courtesy of Patrick Sullivan

The remaining birds were spread far and wide across the muddy harbour.

• There were ringed plovers, black-tailed godwits, little egrets, turnstone and a pintail showing well.
• We were particularly keen to see knot, and we found them in the distance, on the edge of the channel, associating with the dunlin and grey plover. 

These birds almost certainly gave us that magnificent aerial display earlier, and they were probably reacting to a marauding predator.

The next stop was the shingle beach of Church Norton spit and a brief seawatch.

Courtesy of Chris Harries

• The main interest was a pair of red-breasted mergansers, seen swimming parallel to the shoreline, alas just out of range of our photographers.
• Apart from the odd great crested grebe and some turnstones there was very little else going on.

This signalled the end of activities for most members.

• A few of us returned to the Ferry Hide to look for a Green Sandpiper that was reportedly in the sole muddy area by the hide.  Sad to say we did not find it.
• Sue took the opportunity to relocate to the North Wall where she was lucky to find the long-eared owls still generating lots of interest after all these weeks.  

This was another excellent trip, Kevin, and the members' support today is a tribute to your leadership.

The bird of the day for me was the knot, but I am sure others would favour the whimbrel, the greenshank, or the kingfisher.

Name:	Count		Name:	Count
Black-headed Gull	1		Little Egret	36
Black-tailed Godwit	2		Little Grebe	37
Blackbird	3		Long-tailed Tit	38
Blue Tit	4		Magpie	39
Brent Goose	5		Mallard	40
Bullfinch	6		Marsh Harrier	41
Carrion Crow	7		Mistle Thrush	42
Chaffinch	8		Moorhen	43
Common Gull	9		Mute Swan	44
Coot	10		Nuthatch	45
Cormorant	11		Oystercatcher	46
Curlew	12		Pheasant	47
Dunlin	13		Pied Wagtail	48
Dunnock	14		Pintail	49
Gadwall	15		Red-breasted Merganser	50
Gannet	16		Redshank	51
Golden Plover	17		Ringed Plover	52
Goldfinch	18		Robin	53
Great Black-backed Gull	19		Rook	54
Great Crested Grebe	20		Shelduck	55
Great Spotted Woodpecker	21		Shoveler	56
Great Tit	22		Skylark	57
Green Woodpecker	23		Snipe	58
Greenfinch	24		Song Thrush	59
Greenshank	25		Starling	60
Grey Heron	26		Stock Dove	61
Grey Plover	27		Stonechat	62
Herring Gull	28		Teal	63
House Sparrow	29		Tufted Duck	64
Jackdaw	30		Turnstone	65
Kestrel	31		Whimbrel	66
Kingfisher	32		Wigeon	67
Knot	33		Woodpigeon	68
Lapwing	34		Wren	69
Linnet	35		Yellowhammer	70

Today's species count = 70

2025 species count = 115

New Species:

112  Knot

113  Gannet

114  Whimbrel

115 Mistle Thrush