Chichester for Curlew Sandpiper and Squacco Heron

 Friday 29th July 2022

Martin and I joined Mark and Elizabeth for a day's birding in the Chichester area.  

First stop was the visitor centre at RSPB Pagham Harbour and the Ferry Hide, in particular, where there was lots of activity.  

The main highlights included the following sightings:

• 4 common sandpipers,
• at least 4 buzzards
• numerous black-tailed godwits in their superb summer plumage.

A quick walk to the nearby channel produced more highlights:

• there was a cracking kingfisher which flew from the post to the pumping station before heading off down the channel.
• a lovely greenshank was feeding in the mud.

courtesy of Martin Jeffree

After lunch we relocated to Medmerry rather than go on to the North Wall area, missing out on the squacco heron that had turned up shortly afterwards.

At Medmerry there was no sign of the white-rumped sandpiper or the glossy ibis that were reported earlier.  

• However we did see the curlew sandpiper at the Stilt Pool

courtesy of Martin Jeffree

• the other birds of interest included several common sandpipers, several ringed plovers, numerous sand martins, a marsh harrier and a lovely low flying peregrine zoomed by.

It was such a hot day that by 6.30 pm, rather than twitch the squacco heron at the North wall, we decided to head off home.

A lovely day out with lots of wildlife on show - butterflies, moths and deer as well as the gorgeous birds.

Saturday 30th July

Halsey's Farm,  Pagham Harbour

Next day, after lunch,  I headed off to Halsey's farm to twitch the squacco heron.  When I arrived the heron was not there, having flown off over Owl Copse towards the North Wall some 45 minutes earlier.  It was a lovely afternoon so I decided to wait for the bird to return.

Well over an hour later our numbers had dwindled to 4 - soon to be 2 - as 2 other birders decided to follow the path round the herons favourite field hoping to catch sight of it.

• Things changed dramatically when the bird flew back from Owl Copse, over the field in front of us and landed in the field just beyond the ditch at the end of the rife.  

courtesy of Sarah Russell and Twitter

courtesy of Sarah Russell and Twitter

Despite our best efforts we couldn't find it in the field.  By now we were joined by Lee Evans and his friend who helped us search for 20 minutes or so we returned to the bank where we had been previously. 

Our 2 guys returned to their perimeter plod - this time targeting the ditch while we looked on for a response to their efforts.  

• After initially drawing a blank they found the squacco heron, sitting at the top of the bush - only yards from where I had seen it land and in the area we had all just searched!

courtesy of Birdboyads and Twitter

• The views were super, if somewhat distant, with the bird showing well.

It then flew to the post at the end of the rife and perched there for all the photographers to get their pictures.

courtesy of Nick Bond and Twitter

What a great finish!

Year total - 199