8th October 2020 - Church Norton - The Dip of all Dips

It's a quiet Thursday evening, I had just finished working from home for the day and the Selsey Peninsula WhatsApp group pings, it's Andy Wilkes to say he has just seen a Nightjar at The Severals. When I received this message I was actually on FaceTime to my dad and jokingly said 'I bet it's a Common Nighthawk' but this is Sussex and we don't get American Vagrants other than once in a blue moon although this was The Vicar, a man who has a history of photographing rare birds on the Selsey Peninsula.

Owen Mitchell is the first to reply and asks if Andy had photographed the bird? A reply soon comes and he said he will send an image once he's home. 1 hour and 16 minutes passes and Andy sends a photograph, it's a brilliant image of a COMMON NIGHTHAWK. A few replies start coming through all stating it's a Common Nighthawk. I was already in the car and on my way, the next 45 minutes to 1 hour are all a bit of blur, I was in complete headless chicken mode. Surely this couldn't be? My phone was pinging non-stop, I had what seemed like the whole of the Sussex Birding community ringing and texting me. 

The journey was smooth although anyone driving at less than 70mph was a pain in the ass. I was flying down the Selsey Road until I got too Sidlesham. Here I encountered two cyclists and a long line of traffic in front of me who were being very reluctant to overtake. I probably lost 5 minutes due to this and in hindsight this probably cost me the bird. I had a phone call from Dad to say 'it is showing now and flying around The Severals'. I was still 10 minutes away and this felt like an eternity. I eventually pulled into the Church Norton car park and grabbed everything and ran for The Severals. I was the first 'non-local birder' on site and got to Pagham Spit to see six or so other birders (Ian Pitts, Bart Ives, Chris Janman et al.) shouting at me that 'it was flying down the spit'. Andy Wilkes was standing next to me and had it in his bins but despite my best efforts I couldn't get on it. 

COMMON NIGHTHAWK, The Severals. Photo: Andy Wilkes

Dan and Michael Booker were about a minute behind me and got there bins on it as it went over towards Pagham and then behind Tern Island. George Kinnard and Luke Dray were next to arrive missing it by no more then a couple of minutes followed by Nick Oliver and Ashley Howe. I knew when it flew across the harbour my moment had gone, I had lost my chance at a seeing a 'once in a lifetime event' and a 'county blocker'. Once it had disappeared from sight I returned to The Severals hoping for a reappearance but this was more out of hope than expectation. 

It's taken me a while to write this blog post as it's something I would rather forget about than relive as its probably my lowest point in birding (even ahead of dipping Rufous-crowned pitasoma two days running in Ecuador). It's a great shame news didn't get out earlier and then everyone in Sussex probably would've seen this unique event.