A December Day on the Marsh, Guided Birdwatching Trip Report

Braving the wind at Farlington Marshes on Sunday 8^th December proved worthwhile. The day started with a goldfinch atop a teasel by the side of the car park and a large gathering of brent geese on the water in the corner of the harbour.

By the entrance gate a group of long-tailed tits flew one at a time from left to right. Despite the proximity to the road their calls could still be heard. A group of greenfinches were on the move and trying decide which bush to land up in. Looking to the east a marsh harrier was quartering over the reedbed, and with the distance involved we had opportunity to look at the structure of the bird and use this to confirm its identity. We got another, far closer, view of this harrier towards the end of the outing, more on that later. 

Around a small patch of exposed land in the harbour were many black-headed and common gulls. Each individual was facing directly into the wind. Amongst the gulls several oystercatchers took advantage of the mud that had recently been exposed by the falling tide.

On the freshwater lake the reeds were swaying with great amplitudes. Usually in conditions such as this the chances of seeing the resident bearded tits are slim. Upon ducking below the sea wall however we quickly heard a few ‘pings’, signalling that they were close by. Slightly later on the pinging continued and the beardies started moving around. They were flying from one spot to another and quickly disappearing down, presumably, to near the bottom of the reeds.

View of the lake and reedbed.

Owing to the heavy rains in the few weeks prior the lake was around maximum capacity. With the edges covered in water little room was left for roosting waders. Several species of waders were seen here anyway, including a number of avocets. The ducks are not affected quite so much by the height of the water, and particularly nice to see in this area were many pintails with their elegant forms and the striking plumage of the males.

Male pintail.

Once beyond the lake a large number of geese were flying around. The vast majority were brents, with a smaller number being Canada geese, and finally within the groups a flock or around 45 barnacle geese appeared. There is often a lone barnacle goose around this area, a probable escapee from a collection, but this flock seemed to most probably have wilder origins. They were reasonably skittish and took to the air regularly between feeding on the grassland. They seemed to turn up sometime before 11 am, and earlier in the day I had seen a report of 50 barnacle geese at Pagham Harbour. I am assuming this was most likely the same flock.

Part of the flock of barnacle geese. 

The geese were regularly taking to the skies, along with a large flock of starlings, pictured below. It seemed as though a predator was around. A kestrel swooped in the distance but this was unlikely to be the cause of such large disturbances.

 

Close in a black-tailed godwit was feeding in the wet grassland. With the sun in a favourable position we had fantastic views of this leggy wader.

Black-tailed godwit.

The starlings were still angsty, and the cause of this materialised. A small raptor flew low over the grass and landed up on a distant grass mound. It was a merlin. These are our smallest bird of prey and a winter visitor to these areas. This individual with its brown plumage and slightly larger size (for a merlin) was a female. She sat on the mound for perhaps 10 minutes before flying off at great speed. Fortunately she flew towards us and we ended up with good views of her rocketing over the marsh and sea wall out into the surrounding harbour.

Merlin on a distant mound.

On the eastern bank of the reserve we took shelter from the wind behind the sea wall and ate our lunch. With the tide still receding and fresh areas of prime mud being exposed this was a dynamic period with waders flying to and fro from seemingly every direction. The largest numbers comprised of dunlin and flocks many hundreds strong could be seen flying low over the water.

After lunch we searched every inch of the ‘deeps’, an area of freshwater pools, and there were impressive amounts of winter ducks. Notably in one close scope view were pintail, shoveler, wigeon and teal sitting next to each other. A meadow pipit was foraging around the short grass turf on the edge of one of the pools.

Further north in a wet meadow a little egret grabbed my attention, as I looked at it through binoculars I noticed a greenshank was in front of the egret. You become accustomed to seeing greenshank in brown muddy areas or in water, but from our angle it was surrounded by green grass that framed the bird very nicely indeed.

Continuing on the circular walk we were now on the stretch back to the car park. We decided to have one final check of the reedbed by the stream section. This was when the marsh harrier made another appearance, and it was hunting over the reedbed in the same manner as we had seen earlier. On the whole a chocolate coloured plumage, with cream on the head extending into the shoulders and font of the wing, this fit the bill for an adult female. It is hard to be sure when seeing individual marsh harriers like this however, as some males can resemble females.

With that we headed back to the cars and just about made it as the rain started in earnest!

Photos were kindly provided by Les Phillips.

- Hugh Baggaley