A short walk was called for today as an unhappy toe made it’s presence felt and didn’t want to be aggravated. The Church Norton circular is certainly short and offered the project of seeing some interesting wildfowl.

A bright sunny day with a rising tide should have create favourable conditions for wildlife but not much
seemed to be happening at Pagham Harbour. There was a line of birders along the waters edge equipped with an impressive array of telescopes. Maybe they could see something I couldn’t, all I could see was a lot of common seagulls; but maybe they didn’t as they didn’t stay long.

What was captivating was a particularly large flock of dunlin flying in formation like a murmuration of starlings. Swooping up and down with barrel rolls to show off, one after the other, their dark backs and light undersides. A striking sight in the bright sunshine.

The sea shore was empty and few birds made their presence known on the way back past the farms to the car. It was only on the way home as we passed through Donnington that we saw something interesting, above a field ahead were huge numbers of crows, literally blackening the sky.

Something had attracted them to the field, at first it appeared that they were feeding on an unknown but attractive crop. Seemingly, at a command, they all disappeared into a dozen or more trees forming dense roosts making an incredible sight with so many trees laden with dark black forms. Why, was not clear, it must be some social behaviour rather than feeding, it certainly was spectacular.