Friday 7th June 2024: Rarity hunting at Pagham Harbour

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 After a busy week, we had a leisurely start to the morning, but eventually decided it was worth a trip to Pagham to try to find the American Golden Plover being reported over the last few days. The main incentive, was Bernie’s comment that this was ‘a birder’s bird’. If w could find this, maybe we could call ourselves proper Birders!! On our arrival, we were told where the bird had been seen, but we were unable to locate it, and the heat haze made viewing difficult.

We moved along the path and scanned again from the end of White’s Creek, but were still unable to locate the bird. However, there were plenty of other birds about, including a pair of Bar-tailed Godwits and groups of Oystercatcher, Curlew and Grey Plover. The tide was coming in fast, causing the birds to move around a lot. We decided to walk round past the lagoon to the beach and see if we could perhaps find the bird  on Tern Island. It was very windy here, and a struggle to hold the scope steady. On a shingle bank we could make out some Ringed Plover and a single Dunlin, but little else of note.

Seeking some shelter from the wind, I moved to the side of a shingle bank, close to where the bird hide used to be, where it felt  much calmer. I scanned the last vestiges of vegetation above the tide, and noted several Grey Plover flashing their black armpits as they flew briefly up when the tide moved them on to ever higher clumps of saltmarsh. Suddenly I spotted our target bird, sat apart from the other plovers, looking magnificent with its striking white shawl contrasting with black face and under parts, and mottled back. Calling Tim over we were able to watch it for some time through the scopes, sadly too far away for a photo, but well worth the effort of visiting. Real birders now!?!

Equally pleasing was the appearance of five Little Terns, which flew into the harbour and circled and dived around us, one carrying a small fish. We had heard there were none nesting in the harbour this year, so this was an unexpected and rewarding sight. 

Pagham Harbour


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