Farlington Marshes Trip Report, Guided Birdwatching 3rd October 2020

A truly fantastic day at Farlington Marshes displayed why the location is one of the premier birdwatching sites in southeast England. A great mix of birds were seen, some 71 species in half a day, and in that included wonderful views of kingfishers and bearded tits.

Starting on the western seawall the first kingfisher of the day whizzed by in front of us and flew over 500 metres across the sea-filled harbour. The kingfisher didn’t stop there and banked around before flying straight back towards us, eventually flying by in the reverse direction to previously. It came past so close that no binoculars were required. The total viewed flight was uninterrupted and certainly over a kilometre in length, an unusual duration of flight to witness in person.

The previous few days had seen heavy rainfall, and combined with the tide being in, there was water bursting at various seams. The lake in the reserve was full up, not generally ideal conditions for seeing roosting wading birds, but nevertheless there was a panoply of waders tucked around the back corners. Owing to the high water most of the waders were of long-legged varieties, with large numbers of redshank and black-tailed godwit, alongside a nice grouping of 13 greenshanks. A few dunlin were around the legs of the larger waders and snipe were tucked in the edge of the reeds. Within the largest group of waders was a ruff, an all too rare sight around the south coast.

A great deal of disturbance could be seen in the starlings murmurating behind the lake, several thousand of them, and when the lapwings, curlews, and finally all the gulls flew up something was obviously amiss. Despite searching, no great demon of a raptor was seen. However a common buzzard did fly in over the lake, disturbing all of the waders, and landed on a post behind the reeds. A most handsome individual, it settled in on a favoured spot.

When further disturbance was observed we looked once more for the culprit, and eventually a sparrowhawk was seen flying low over the grassland, however it was unlikely that this, the buzzard, or a kestrel that we saw, caused all of the mayhem.

The reed beds were emitting repeated pinging sounds of the bearded tits. Patience was rewarded when a single bird flew from the nearest set of reeds to the farthest. Later on about 20 of them all flew up! We were witnessing an autumnal behaviour of their flocks as they flutter up in towers, an amazing sight. All the more fortunate were we when they decided to land in the tops of the reeds. Through the scopes a stunning view of these delightful birds was enjoyed. As is often the case at this site there was a preponderance of males seen, these being especially attractive with their stunning plumage.

Male Bearded Tit on 1st January 2020 at Farlington Marshes

Moving around to the southern tip of Farlington Marshes, there were numerous dense flocks of waders roosting on the areas of dry land just above the sea level. One such group was really close in off the sea wall and was primarily dunlin and ringed plover, with a few turnstones mixed in. I was scanning through the dunlin to see if anything unusual was there and so appeared a single far smaller wader, a little stint. To look small next to a dunlin you have to be really rather small indeed, and little stints are just that! There were so many dunlin and ringed plover in this area that it was a challenge for everyone to spot the little stint, however we all did after some searching. As it was so close and relatively still, all the ID features could be carefully looked over. The stint puffed its feathers up to keep warm, and then proceeded to fall asleep.

Dunlins and Ringed Plovers.

On an island there was a similar flock, but this one contained many grey plovers. Towards the right hand side of the island was another surprise in the shape of a spotted redshank. Many of these waders flew off, the grey plovers and the spotted redshank flew past us giving wonderful views. The spotted redshank called as it flew by, they sound completely different from a common redshank, making a clear ‘chu-iit’.

Waders settled back on the island and another observer pointed out a tiny wader mixed in with the grey plovers. We all got our scopes on it, and although more distant than the original little stint could see that this was in fact a second little stint! The original was asleep amongst the dunlin, and this one was wandering about the island.

We moved up to a scrape and behind this a kingfisher appeared on top of an anthill, as though the sighting earlier wasn’t enough! Behind us several hundred brent geese flew in and landed behind the distant islands in the harbour, it’s great to have them back. From here we doubled back and at the lake spent a bit of time looking through the various waders and ducks once more. On the duck front there was a nice collection of pintails, as well as shoveler, gadwall, teal, mallard and four tufted ducks.

By this time our avian saturation levels were as high as can be, and amazingly it did not rain while we were out, so we were remarkably dry. It rained on the journey in, and once driving back home it started raining once again. We had definitely made the most of the day. Photos were taken and provided by Les Phillips.

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- Hugh Baggaley