Pulborough, 9th-10th March

A classic March weekend, weather-wise, and just a few more signs of birds on the move despite the blustery conditions.

Gulls were a strong feature of both days but particularly on Sunday, with at least eight adult Mediterranean Gulls (in various stages of summer plumage acquisition) around this afternoon plus seven Lesser Black-backeds and good numbers of Herring, Common and Black-headed.

Saturday morning's undoubted star bird was a female Merlin which sat out in the short grass on the North Brooks for several minutes before flying off low over the water. Also of note was a bit of Fieldfare movement with at least 110 quite high east in little over half an hour or so. I noted very few Redwing all weekend.

The lingering pair of White-fronted Geese remained on the South Brooks, most reliably viewed from Hail's View, which has also been the best place to catch up with most of the waders lately with high counts of 5 Ruff, 6 Dunlin and 3 Redshank in the past few days, plus the first Green Sandpipers (2) of the year on Friday. Black-tailed Godwit numbers have been slowly creeping back up this week, with around 50 present on the North Brooks today.

Highlight of the weekend for me though was finding a patch tick Cattle Egret from the Hanger, strutting about among the cows (surprise, surprise!) in the field between the A283 and the North Brooks. I and most of the other regulars check this field regularly for this very reason but, prior to today, Paul Davy's record of two briefly on the North Brooks last September was the only Pulborough record of this species. Quite often a Little Egret briefly gets the pulse going before its true identity is confirmed, but just as I was about to write today's bird off as another false alarm I realised it did indeed have a yellow bill and yellow legs. Bingo! I put the news out and headed round to Mare Hill Road where I met up with Gary Trew and Paul and we enjoyed good views of the bird before it flew at 16:55 and battled slowly southwest against the wind, presumably to roost at Arundel WWT where one has been coming in most evenings through the winter.