Us birders are a difficult lot to please and for most of last week the weather was just too nice. Clear skies, warm temperatures and very light winds meant few grounded migrants and those seabirds moving up channel were generally a long way offshore.
By way of an oddity a singing Corn Bunting on the coastal strip at Goring Gap on 21/4 was the first here since August 2021 and our local bird historian notes that there have been very few previous spring or summer records in this potential breeding habitat.
Summer Arrivals
There was a notable arrival of Lesser Whitethroats this week with their rattling song being heard from deep within the blossoming hawthorn bushes competing with the more numerous scratchy song of Common Whitethroats. Birds were reported from Patching, Highdown, Cissbury, Worthing Golf Course and Lancing on several dates throughout the week.
Garden Warbler is another summer arrival usually associated with late April and bang on cue a newly arrived bird was in full song in tamerisks by Sea Lane Cafe on 25/4, with others also reported from Highdown.
A Hobby flying north over Adur Avenue on 26/4 was another obvious new arrival and this small falcon will soon be feasting on dragonflies and insects on the wetlands of the Arun and Adur.
Swallows were a feature of seawatching through the week with birds seen daily flying low over the water to complete their long migration routes back to the UK with the biggest daily estimate bring 40+ birds arriving on Saturday 26/4.
By the weekend of 26-27/4 the first few Swifts were seen over Angmering and Highdown and hopefully they will be a feature in the coming weeks screeching over our rooftops.
Spring Migrants
Finally the first local Ring Ouzel was seen on Thursday 24/4 favouring the gorse and short grasses on the north side of Cissbury Ring.
A female Black Redstart was seen in the cemetery below Lancing Ring on 25/4 and a female Pied Flycatcher was reported in the copse there on the same day (at least 11 days after it was last reported).
Wheatears continued to trickle in with reports along the coast from several locations and notably two birds were watched flying in and landing briefly infront of the sea watchers at Marine Gardens on 23&25/4.
Migrating Whimbrel are expected along the coast but six birds flying east along A27 at Angmering and two north over Highdown were taking a more unexpected route. Finally a Common Sandpiper was seen at Brooklands on 23/4 where a Pintail on the lake was another unusual record.
Seawatching
Notable highlights on Wednesday 23rd April were a single Little Tern and two Eider seen heading west early morning from Marine Gardens.
The promise of winds from a NE / SE vector raised expectations amongst local seawatchers resulting in good coverage between Goring Gap and Widewater from Thursday 24/4 but in general they proved to be disappointingly light.
The only Arctic Skua was a pale phase bird on 24/4 whilst a Great Skua was seen on 24/4 and 25/4 but may be the same bird hanging around offshore.
Small numbers of Kittiwakes (max 14e) and Fulmars (max 3e) were seen most days, however tern movement was virtually non existent. Common Tern (3e) and Arctic Tern (1e) were only noted on 26th and the maximum daily Sandwich Tern count didn’t exceed 20 birds.
The best day for wader passage was Saturday 26th April with Bar-tailed Godwits c500e, Whimbrel c80e, Knot 9e and Sanderling 4e with many more distant flocks of probable godwits not counted.
Three summer plumaged Black-throated Divers went east on 25/4 and the peak count of Common Scoter was 87e on 25/4. The only Brent Geese were 15e on 27/4 whilst four Canada Geese went west on 25/4.
The only upside of the flat glassy calm seas was a pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins watched feeding distantly for an hour offshore from Marine Gardens on Friday 25th April.
