Pagham Lagoon....a newcomer.

As I walked past the western end of Pagham Lagoon this afternoon  I was surprised to find a grebe in the fenced off area amongst the grassy tussocks. Assuming it was one of the regular Little Grebes I   realised it was indeed a Black Necked Grebe and once it was in the water it started feeding on small fish. After 5 minutes or so it chose to ignore me and enabled me to get some decent photos at close range. Initially I thought it was unwell but it may have just been exhausted from its flight assumimg it had just arrived as it seemed to be feeding well although I did not see it dive and it was only picking the tiny fish from the shallows.I shall check on it tomorrow morning!

After initially stagerring out of the grass it soon made it to the water.

Yesterday whilst showing my grandaughter the delights of  watching the waders on the shingle bar  from our living room window during mid-afternoon she suddenly drew my attention to a distant flock of  duck flying westwards.....she mentioned that a few of them had white patches on their wings. On 'scoping them there was a flock of Scoter accompanied by 3 Velvets....its great to have young eyes!