25th January - Sidlesham

We spent the weekend once again at the Crab and Lobster in Sidlesham.  The Saturday morning we had a walk down to Church Norton and then on to Selsey.  There wasn't that much about, and the tide was well out.

A Little Egret fished in the creek as we set off

The trees along the footpath were covered in lichen, which looks quite beautiful

The teasels were covered in Goldfinch as we approached but flew off with the tinkling calls ringing out around us.  The heads of the teases though looked lovely against the rain drop covered bushes.

We took a different path and ended up at Church Norton where there were Firecrests in the trees.  We walked on, and passed an RSPB van that we did not realise was carrying the adult Glaucous Gull.  The RSPB had decided to take it into care, and unfortunately it died the next day.

The sea was a long way out, but one adult Red-breasted Merganser was quite close in, and allowed us to get close by walking down the beach to the sea.

We went as far as East Beach, stopped for a drink then headed back.  The tide was now starting to come in, and the groynes were getting covered, but the Herring Gulls didn't care as they perched on the posts.

A little past the beach houses a Red Admiral flew past us, a sure sign of how mild it was.

At Church Norton we walked to the footpath we had come down, and passed a field that had about a thousand Brent Geese in it.  As we approached they started to walk away from us, and then they took to the air, and flew to the back of the field.  There is something abouit geese in flight.

As they flew back their shape looks quite spectacular.

We made our way back to Sidlesham.  We decided to walk to the north wall after changing to wellingtons, but as we did the wind started to pick up , and the skies darkened so we decided to turn back.  It was very quiet on the wall though.  

Back in the pub, the rain came down, but we missed out on the strong winds and possible tornadoes that hit elsewhere.