SELSEY BIG DAY 30/03/26- PART TWO

For those who haven't yet seen Part One, I would recommend starting this story with that as well, it makes sense! Here's the link- In Flight: Aves Observata: SELSEY BIG DAY 30/03/26 PART ONE

So picking from where I left off- at Pagham Harbour and The Ferry Pools, with a species count of 60.

After picking up the Dunnock, things went very slowly for the next hour or so. I walked nearly all the way to the Crab and Lobster Hotel before turning around and following my steps back with no sign of anything anywhere. My main aim was to see one of the seemingly hundreds of Chiffchaffs I could hear all around me. Finally, after walking back through the Discovery area a few times, I located one singing and showing well.

Number 62 of the day came in the form of a Song Thrush that flew past. 

I made it back to the Ferry Pool Hide, where I took some more photos of the birds on the feeders, and another day-tick came through a Pied Wagtail that flew overhead.

With no luck with anything else around, I headed to the bus stop for my next stint of the day.

I ended up taking the 12:34 bus up to Chichester Bus Station...the plan was to go up there, order lunch on the journey, walk in, grab my meal and walk from there to Chichester Gravel Pits- about a 30-minute walk. 

Everything went to plan, and I made it to Chichester on time, ordered my lunch and walked to my food and picked it up. So what was I eating? Well, I love food and do loads of cooking, so I love trying new stuff out. So, when I realised there was a Taco Bell within walking distance from the bus station, I planned to go there. Taco Bell is a Mexican fast-food chain that is most common in North America, but a few are found in Britain... (I just can't help describing things like birds!) I was really looking forward to trying it out.

After picking up a lava burrito with seasoned fries and a Pepsi, and, with a half an hour walk in front of me, I tucked in to my meal, heading towards my next location...

Now I'm not trying to advertise Taco Bell or anything, but this meal was something else. It was so, so, so good. It tasted like proper food as well- nothing like the greasy fake cheese on a Big Mac! A good-sized burrito, a full bag of simply incredible chips, and a good-sized drink all for £7.50, which isn't too bad nowadays... I will definitely be going back at some point. I'm writing this over two weeks later and still thinking about how good this was. Yum.

Anyways, back to the birds.

I made it to Chichester Gravel Pits at 13:30 after a long walk along the A27 (not on the actual road of course:). Here, the two species I was hoping to pick up were Tufted Duck and Pochard. Without really knowing what the place was like, I just started walking down the path, quickly picking up one of the two targets for this site- Tufted Duck.  

One thing I really noticed was how blue the water was. It was like really blue. Funnily enough, I was taking a photo of this vibrant water when another new species swam into view- Canada Goose. I had completely forgotten about getting a Canada Goose! I'd somehow avoided them so far in the day...

Just as I was searching through the gulls, another new bird turned up- a Greylag Goose.

I was really enjoying this place... I had expected to quickly pick up a few species and then move on, but things kept coming. Soon, what had been my second target species here turned up- Pochard. It was distant, so I quickly moved on.

It was quite a weird location, with some paths cut off by fences, caravans dotted around, a house situated on one of the paths between 3 of the lakes, and, well, lots and lots of lakes dotted all over the place. 

Yet another species soon came in- a family of Egyptian Geese.

I walked around the east part of the lakes for a little bit, finding another few Pochard that came very close, before heading back on myself to have a look at another lake I hadn't searched yet.

I was constantly checking around for two species that I could see here but were very unlikely- Sand Martin and Little Gull, both of which had been seen a day or two previous but not since. 

I finally picked up a Moorhen and made it onto a new path, looking over a different lake. Almost immediately, one of the gulls was different. Small... tiny... Little. It was on the water, and a very brief scan through binoculars confirmed the already certain ID- this was a Little Gull... What a bird! I spent quite a while photographing it- it showed so well, landed at first, before flying over the water like a paper aeroplane, hawking insects. Wow.

To say I was enjoying this would be a massive understatement...

With time quickly moving on, I had to tear myself away from this little stunner and head back towards the bus stop, with an incredible species total of 70... what a successful trip the Gravel Pits had been. I planned to go there and pick up two species, but in the end, I got a brilliant seven. Wow.

I boarded my bus at about 14:45 and headed off to my final location of the day- Pagham Harbour North Wall. This would be an epic finale to the trip, but for now, I'm going to draw Part Two to a close.

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Thanks for reading, hope you've enjoyed. I am really sorry about how slowly these are coming out, but I've got an exam coming up in the very near future, so I've been studying a lot and just haven't had much downtime to write this up.... and when I do have time, little progress is made because of how many photos need editing, remembering what actually happened and various other things. I need to get to sleep as I have a big day tomorrow... It's the blog's 1-year anniversary, and I've got something very nice planned. 

Good night:)