A27 Birding

Another trip to Worthing today and it was a lot nicer driving now that the fog has finally gone. For various reasons I wasn’t able to have my normal walk on the pier but despite the biting wind I did manage a ten minute walk along the front. Only birds seen were a few gulls and a couple of Cormorants. Driving back I was just about to join the A27 near to Patching when I noticed a few gulls milling around. Obviously it isn’t always easy to look in detail while driving but one of the birds looked a bit different and it appeared that it was being mobbed. As I got a bit closer I realised that it was a Bittern. Slowing right down I managed to get a reasonable view of it before it dropped down behind some trees. Checking on a satellite view of the area this evening there is a lake behind those trees so I guess that was where it was headed. Quite a surprise sighting. Further along the road and with the tide right in there was nothing to see as I passed Langstone Harbour but in the water alongside the road to Portchester was a flock of around forty Brent Geese. Back in Wiltshire on my way home I looked in on Wroughton Reservoir where the numbers had dropped back to normal with just a couple of Little Grebe and a few Tufted and Gadwall.