Hooded merganser, west suusex

On Friday 9th of November I decided I would go to Pagham Harbour after work to try and see the 1st winter female Hooded Merganser that had been present in a channel near the sluice gate off the north wall area! I arrived just before 3:00pm and 5 minutes later I was stood with 6 assembled birders on the sluice gate watching the merg constantly 'snorkelling' and 'diving' for food.

It was also quite wary and although it did show well you just got the feeling the bird was always on edge and preferred to feed away from the sluice gate further down the channel! I arrived home about 4:30pm.

Seeing as I couldn't get there Saturday nor Sunday I was really pleased to see it as the next time I would be able to visit would be the week after and it could possibly be gone, it's also good to see what must be ' a good candidate' for a wild bird! A lot better than my previous anyway 'radipole bird'!
Record shot below, the light was terrible and it wasn't all that close either.

Grey Phalarope makes my weekend..............

Well on Saturday the 3rd of November the plan was to drive up into Wiltshire and look for the Black Throated Diver that had been present during the week on a small fishing lake a Mouldon Country Park however the bird flew off to the west on Friday so instead me and Jess decided to go down to Eyeworth pond and feed the ducks along with the smaller birds!
We arrived just after midday and was greeted by the usual mallards and the other weird hybrid thingys, there were also a group of Gadwall on the pond but no Mandarins. We ten
Positioned the car and viewed a seeded log where we had Blue, Great, Coal and Marsh tits, other birds feeding were Nuthatch, Chaffinch and House sparrows.
Later on 2 mandarins were found hiding over the back of the pond in some willows and unfortunately they didn't ce close enough for any photographs, with this me and Jess decided to head home taking a scenic drive back through the forest!

On Sunday morning I was up nice and early as I had a football match to play however by 9:30am the match had been cancelled which was no real suprise as the weather overnight was terrible and there was a lot of flooding. Therefore me and Jess popped back home to grab some food and camera equipment and we again set off to Eyeworth Pond seeing as the weather was clearing up nicely.
It was much of the same as yesterday with all the same birds present however today the Mandarins were showing very well taking bread by the car park but only 1 male and 1 female present, last year there was up to 20 birds!

After Eyeworth I was planning on visiting Calshot Marshes to try and find some Black Redstarts however after speaking this over with Jess she wanted to go to Needs Ore NR! Last time I said no we will go somewhere else Needs Ore had a 'Spectacled Warbler' and as you can imagine it pissed me right off!
Therefore I agreed and thought I had better pay it a flying visit. Driving down the access track didn't look promising, the fields were flooded and I thought that there was going to be nothing of note other than maybe some wildfowl!
We got near the farm and I noticed a lot of curlews in the field opposite, I started to scan and found amongst them (2) Greenshanks, (2) Redshanks, a few Black tailed Godwits and a single Bar Wit amongst them! And then I noticed a pale bird feeding on a flooded section of the field and it was moving very quickly and straight away knew that I had found a 'Grey Phalarope'! Brilliant.............not the rarest bird in the world but I have never found a Phalarope before and they have been quite scarce in Hampshire this year so this was my first, also my purple patch continues at this place after finding a Long Billed Dowitcher earlier in the year along with a Glossy Ibis and being on site when the Red breasted goose was found! Record shot below as it was quite distant and the light was fading!

Desert wheatear, Worthing,

On Friday the 26th of October I couldn't resist the 'Desert wheatear' any longer that had been pleasing many on the beach at Worthing seafront. I had work all morning but as soon as 2pm come around I was off straight down the M27, it took just over 1 hour which was a little longer than I had hoped as the light wasn't particularly good and I had a party at 7pm.

On arrival the bird was showing brilliantly right in front of the assembled crowd perched on a post. I joined them and started firing away at this superb bird. To cut a long story short I stayed on-site for approx 2 hours and enjoyed crippling views of this bird sometimes down to just a few feet and I left at 5pm once the rain had set in and the light began to fade, all in all it was fantastic bird and cannot wait till I see the next one which is hopefully just a showy but in better weather.
Here is some of my pictures from that afternoon, luckily I saw the bird as It disappeared overnight much to my disappointment as the weather was lovely the next day and I was on standby for another visit.