2nd January 2019 - Birding around Shoreham

I made plans with Mum to meet me at Shoreham Fort at 8am.

Upon mums arrival, it didn't take long to locate the lovely male Black Redstart. This smart individual showed well around the moat of the fort and perching up on the heras fencing and fort walls from time to time giving great views. We had a look for Purple Sandpipers on the wooden jetty sadly we didn't see any. The tide was just a tad too high, I always find the best time to see these birds is around an hour or so after high tide. 

Having missed the Purple Sandpipers we had a look out to sea off the Fort which was quite fruitful and produced a single Brent Goose which flew west, lots of auks most of which were Razorbill however there was a single Common Guillemot quite close inshore which gave nice views and I counted around 6 Red-throated Divers offshore as well. 

We moved onto Widewater after Shoreham Fort which produced the usual Little Egret, Mute Swans, Redshank and Little Grebes but the main reason for visiting was to try and find the two Velvet Scoter which have been offshore between Lancing and Shoreham. We started off with a scan from the Eastern end of Widewater with not much luck, we continued to walk along the beach and came to Eastern Sands Holiday Park at the far Western end of Widewater, after a few minutes of scanning Mum found the two Velvet Scoter a long way out giving a lot worse views then when I saw them with Dad a few days before (Photo below of birds on 30/12/18). Also at the far Western end of the lagoons was a single Grey Wagtail, Redshank and a nice flock of House Sparrows in the brambles below the coastal path. 

2 Velvet Scoter - off Widewater Lagoon (30/12/18).

After the Velvets we moved round to Shoreham Recreation Ground which produced a a couple of Greenfinch and a single Kestrel and Goldcrest. Before moving onto the River Adur mudflats to scan for waders and gulls. The tide was still a bit too high for any gull roost but the mudflats that were exposed held a few Black-headed, Common and Herring Gulls. We decided to walk North as far as Cuckoo's Corner and we were duly rewarded for our efforts with great views of a Kingfisher on the dropping tide and also 3 Little Grebes along the river. 

A good day spent birding around the area I grew up with a total of 48 species recorded. Not bad for Shoreham!