As today (Monday) was supposed to be the best of the week weather wise, Gordon and I went to Pagham Harbour and as it was his turn to drive I could sit back and relax. We were hoping for a better day than we had at Stanpit Marsh a fortnight or so ago, when the high wind and driving rain made it almost impossible to do any birding. We left fairly early for Sussex before the traffic build up and had a good, uneventful trip to Pagham. By the time we parked the car at the nature reserve, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. As the tide was high, most of the waders, ducks, gulls etc. were congregated in large numbers on the islands, which made viewing through a scope fairly easy. The birds at Pagham are most of the time a fair distance away, so a telescope is in my opinion a necessity. We started at Ferry Pool where WIGEON, SHOVELER, TEAL, SHELDUCK, SNIPE, LAPWING and a large flock of STARLINGS were seen. A good start, now for the harbour. As we walked along the footpath which leads down to the beach we saw a large group of LITTLE EGRET, a very large flock of LAPWING that must have numbered at least 1000 birds, probably more, BRENT GOOSE, 150+ GREY PLOVER, many DUNLIN and a large flock of KNOT. PINTAIL were well represented, whilst a PEREGRINE sat in the middle of one of the islands and surveyed the scene. AVOCET were seen briefly as they moved from one side of the reserve to the other. There were at least 200+ CURLEW, more than I have seen before. We eventually reached the beach where the wind picked up considerably and the clouds started to gather and it wasn't long before it began to rain. So much for the weather forecast. A spot of sea watching produced a SLAVONIAN GREBE and RED BREASTED MERGANSER. On our walk back to the car park, after stopping at the Church Norton hide, the rain began to pour down and we were soaked, so it was a journey home with wet everything, especially our trousers, ah well, the joys of birding.
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