Wilson's Phalarope in ....... East Sussex

Common Buzzard.

I journeyed down to Pagham Harbour on Saturday 19th September and was hoping to see the Grey Phalarope & Pectoral Sandpiper that had been present most of the previous week however the Phalarope had done a bunk and the Pec Sandpiper was being extremely elusive only being seen briefly on two occasions all day and i missed it both times !!!

Great close views.

I did see plenty of other birds including 2 Green & 1 Common Sandpiper plus huge numbers of Hirundines were moving through all the time i was there , a single Wheatear and few Chiffchaffs were in the bushes at Church Norton plus several Siskin's were noted over head through out the morning , i also had a close view of a Common Buzzard as it flew overhead checking me out.

Common Buzzard 

I then had a drive over to Thorney Island area to hopefully see an Osprey and my luck was in as no sooner had i got out the car when i picked one out in the distance.

Distant Osprey.

In flight.

I then went back to Pagham for a second go at looking for the Pec Sandpiper without success when news broke of a Wilson's Phalarope at Pannel NR which was near Pett level in East Sussex , so i decided to head there and after a little bit of confusion i was soon on the right track heading to Pannel scrape , the news was still positive as i was approaching the site although i was running out of daylight (which was a concern) , however by the time i reached the hide i had enough daylight to enjoy this bird which was the first one in Sussex for 24 years !!!

Wilson's Phalarope.

Wilson's Phalarope.

As you can see from the above photo's the bird showed well and were my best views i have had of this species , the Wilson's Phalarope was busy feeding the whole time and where as both Grey & Red necked phalarope's spin around in quite tight circles to stir up their food to pick of the water the Wilson's Phalarope tended to just keep swimming from side to side to feed.

Here is a short video of the Wilson's Phalarope feeding.

Other birds of note were 2 Barn Owls (including one which flew past in front of the hide) plus 3 Lesser Redpolls , Yellow Wagtail and a Hobby along the track.

Record shot of the Barn Owl.