This is the north wall at Pagham Harbour. Last Monday ( Feb 27th) Bun and I spent five and a half miserable hours here, it was dull and grey but there were lots of birds around, unfortunately the one we wanted to see, the Paddyfield Warbler wasn't. This picture was taken yesterday and as you can see the weather was much nicer, wall to wall sunshine and fluffy white clouds. There was just one small problem, it was blowing a hoolie! I was hoping the met office were exaggerating as usual, but on this occasion they weren't.
There was very little in the way of bird activity but we were hopeful as the Paddyfield Warbler had been seen just an hour before we'd arrived. Two and a half hours later I was getting a bit fed up and was having a rest sulk on 'bench three' when I just happened to glance up and noticed Bun was beckoning me. He was near 'bench four'...a whole 100m or so away!! I started walking......then I remembered the truly hideous Great Spotted Cuckoo incident....I started to panic.. there was nothing else for it, I had to do it ...I RAN! It was worth it though because when Bun told me where he'd seen it I soon picked it up making its way through the very bottom of the reeds and it even came right out to the front and showed well for a few seconds before flying over to the next clump of reeds where I lost it but Bun and one other lucky birder saw it again. Brief views but definitely better than last weeks!!
The bird was seen at the base of the reeds on the far side of the channel. The exact same place as the sighting three hours earlier..
Still, mustn't grumble, at least we saw it. These guys had been watching the exact same spot for about half an hour or so and had just wandered off when Bun went over for a look.
I don't know if it showed again on the day, we left as soon as we'd seen it coz it was bloomin' cold! Needless to say the wind had dropped today and the bird was showing well, and even singing!
Bun was especially happy (can you tell?) because Paddyfield Warbler was his 400th bird (BOU...whatever that means ;-)) It was only my 340th. In the background on the right you can see a bench with our scopes and Bun's rucksack on it which I just abandoned in my erm?....oh yes, desperation!
I didn't get chance for a photo of the 'little blighter' as the bird is affectionately known and I wont be doing a painting either, I mean, I just don't think I could adequately portray its stunning beauty! There was a large flock of Brent Geese in the area and as we were leaving I looked at them in a distant field through my bins and was surprised to see them all walking around really quickly in a big circle. They looked very comical, I don't know why they were doing this, it's not something I've seen before. Anyone know what it's all about?
