Medmerry/Bracklesham Bay to East Head/West Wittering, 14.06.21 - Ringed Plover Chicks

On Monday 14.06.21 I walked between the east side of RSPB Medmerry to East Head at West Wittering, along the south coast of the Manhood Peninsular.

I travelled by train from Brighton to Chichester, and by bus from Chichester to Bracklesham Bay/Earnley for RSPB Medmerry by bus, and returned by bus from West Wittering to Chichester, click here for the details, including the timetables, for these public transport connection.

The photographs are presented in chronological order.

The orange line shows my walking route on this satellite view

RSPB Medmerry

On entering Medmerry I saw this Great Tit

And shortly after I saw this Goldfinch,

There were many Meadow Pipits in the reserve.

I passed the Canada Geese and their goslings that I had seen a few weeks ago; again four parent birds were co-parenting the two broods.

There were many juvenile Starlings, often in small flocks

Stilt Pool, with no Avocets and Avocet Chicks, as there had been when I visited a few weeks ago.

On the path to the Stilt Pool I saw two beautiful fledgling Linnets.

In the Stilt Pool there were many Canada Geese and Goslings, and ...

and a few Cormorants, Black-headed Gulls, Mallards and a Grey Heron

On gorse bushes there were some House Sparrows

On Stilt Pool there were also some Oystercatchers

and a Lapwing

and by the pool a Carrion Crow

There are always many Cormorants in the Stilt Pool

The Stilt Pool

On Broad Rife there was a solitary Avocet with its chick

As I walked toward the beach I saw this fabulous male Linnet

Bracklesham Bay Beach

There were few birds on the Beach except Black-Headed Gulls; the beach at Medmerry is closed to the public because there are nesting Terns there.

East Head, West Wittering

The sand spit of East Head and the salt marsh between the head and the mainland of the Manhood Peninsular are fascinating habitats; in the Winter the saltmarsh will be full of migrating waders, in the Summer, Ringed Plovers nest on the beach at the end of East Head, and the grass of the dunes provides nesting sites for many Meadow Pipits and Skylarks

A Meadow Pipit

A view across to the bottoms of Hayling Island and Thorney Island

Ringed Plovers and their chicks, at the end of East Head

Chichester Harbour.

The Dunes of East Head

The Saltmarsh (Mengman Rife)

The Pools between the Coastguard Cottages and the beach car park at West Wittering were full of birds

Black-headed Gulls and Avocets

A Linnet on a bush next to the pools

and adults and juvenile Starlings next to the pools

The Avocets and Black Headed Gulls

and a pair of Shelducks landed

and, like everywhere on the Sussex Coast, Little Egrets - a very visible impact sign of global warming (climate change); Little Egrets were Mediterranean birds, they are now endemic in Sussex as our weather has warmed

And - possibly - a Spotted Reshank - far on the distance, so I could get a good photo!

and walking to the bus stop, to get the 53 back from West Wittering to Chichester I saw many butterflies

and this fantastic wild flower meadow front garden.