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Pagham Birder: The Blog

A regular account of the birds seen mainly on and around Pagham Spit, the Lagoon and the North Wall plus other birding exploits from time to time.
Any news of interest regarding the ongoing erosion problems on Pagham Beach will, from now on, be shown on my other blog together with general beach photos.. Click on the link... Pagham Beach Blog on this page.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Glaucous Gull on Church Norton Spit.

I set off early  this morning to get some low tide photographs of the erosion problems on Pagham Beach taken from the  growing off shore spit which is causing all the problems. Having obtained the images I wanted I returned along the spit on the sea side when my attention was drawn to a lone gull on the shoreline. Initially I thought it was a pale looking Herring Gull but as I got closer I realised this was no ordinary Herring but possibly an adult Glaucous. It allowed a reasonable approach and I was able to secure a few reasonable shots before it took flight and it was then that I noted it had no black tips on the primaries or tail and the flight was more laboured . My previous (limited)  experience with Glaucous Gulls  has been with younger, more mottled birds so it is assumed that this is a bird moving into full adult plumage. (Thanks to help from  Rob and Trevor at the RSPB Centre) Further comments would be appreciated. Anyway here are the pics............







Running take off...



Lift off






Back on the Pagham side of the harbour the Lapwings were still much in evidence, constantly being disturbed and taking flight....cause unknown..
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Then a surprise on the Lagoon....a Slavonian Grebe


 Feeding at the western end of the Lagoon alongside the Tufted Ducks...a nice bird.

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