Twitching in West Sussex - Again!

Thursday 14th September 2023

Pagham Harbour, North Wall

There has been a glut of curlew sandpipers on the east side of Pagham Harbour lately so I decided to go down there rather than twitch a single bird on the nearer River Adur at Shoreham.  With my domestic duties completed I had all of the late afternoon and evening at my disposal and boy did I use it well.

• As I travelled down to Chichester, news came through of 9 curlew sandpipers on the Breach Pool at high tide.  By the time I got there they had moved on to White's Creek on the receding tide.  After a short search I found 4 of them, showing well on one of the side creeks close to the sluices.

courtesy of Adam Huttly and X

• I looked for the other 5 but couldn't find them.  With a fast receding tide there was muddy areas all the way down to the sea and presumably the birds had flown down there.  In an ideal scenario I would have visited a few hours earlier at the time of the incoming tide so that I could have seen all of them.  Not to worry - I was delighted to see 4!  Later reports showed that at least 16 had been seen today - an amazing total.
• By way of a bonus there was a single bar-tailed godwit feeding on the western edge of the creek, right next to a spotted redshank.

The Burgh near Arundel, West Sussex

I spent the evening at The Burgh looking for partridges.  

• All in all I saw over 10 red-legged partridges and at least the same number of grey partridges in the fields as I walked the usual loop from The Triangle, past the farm buildings to The Burgh. 

A lovely late afternoon twitch in West Sussex

 2023 species count = 195