Nutbourne Channel, Guided Birdwatching October 2024

October is an excellent time of year to visit Nutbourne Channel. In the harbour we see the return of the brent geese along with increasing numbers of ducks and wading birds. Many migrating species are moving through and there is a good chance to see a range of raptor species.

View over the harbour

On a beautifully calm and sunny day we walked a path beside a freshwater marsh, from which Cetti's warblers sang and moorhens ran through the grasses. Behind the marsh a sparrowhawk sat in a large dead tree. A crow took objection to the presence of the sparrowhawk and tried its best to annoy the hawk into leaving. A jackdaw got involved and the hawk swooped towards the jackdaw before landing in the neighbouring tree, this tree had more cover but that didn't put off the corvids from their mission. Another sparrowhawk appeared, and with the pair of them together it seemed doubtful that the crow and jackdaw would now be successful.

A snipe burst out of the long grass and a few teal waddled around the edge of a small pool. In the harbour was a great abundance of wetland birds, wigeon, pintail, brent geese, redshank, black-tailed godwit and more. Spread across the water were 34 great crested grebes. In the reeds and scrub a couple of stonechats flitted to and fro, a sedge warbler perched nicely while a water rail called. 

Walking along the top of the channel we saw an osprey fishing in the distance, fortunately it flew towards us and perched nicely on top of a mast. As the tide was rising and drawing the fish in, the osprey bode its time and sat for a good while before taking off and fishing again. It plunged into the water and emerged with a catch, while carrying the fish it shook its feathers and a great plume of water emanated. The osprey carried the fish to an island and ate its lunch.

Osprey

A raven perched in the top of a conifer tree before flying off. We had several sightings of a pair of ravens, it is fantastic to see them doing well here. A group of 100 or so lapwings took off into the sky, a hobby was darting across underneath them and was clearly the reason they had taken off. One of the lapwings started mobbing the hobby and appeared to deter the falcon from the area. In the distance two buzzards soared over the tops of the trees. Looking south over the harbour a marsh harrier slowly flew from right to left and started to quarter an area of saltmarsh. As we returned both sparrowhawks were soaring in the sky still accompanied by the crow. The ravens flew over and then a falcon came towards us and we had fantastic views of a male peregrine as it powered low overhead.

It was a morning of many highlights with 69 bird species recorded on a relatively short walk. If you are interested in attending a guided birdwatching session such as this one, the upcoming events can be seen on the ‘Events’ page of this website. Or to stand the best chance of a space being available, you can get the information emailed to you prior to its publication online by joining my mailing list. To do so simply email me at baggaleyhugh@gmail.com

- Hugh Baggaley