It’s a fine, fresh, Autumn morning with bright sunlight and a deep blue sky. There’s a sharp northerly wind that makes me feel glad I’ve put my Gilet on and want to keep moving. High tide is just after 9am so the harbour is full although close to neaps so there’s still plenty of mud visible.
Bosham is busy, it’s hauling out time for the Sailing club. There’s a busy workboat picking yachts up from their moorings and towing them to the Quay where an impressively large crane is lifting them out. Clouds of spray drift away from the hulls in the wind as the pressure washers blast the weed off, I’m glad I’m not operating them, it looks decidedly wet.
Whilst watching, three Brent Geese came flying past amongst the moorings close to the surface of the water. They are the first we’ve seen this season, it’s such a pleasure to hear their familiar croaking that’s been missing for so many months. No sign of any other wildfowl though, no mallard or any wigeon yet although some have been reported in the harbour.
Waders are a different matter. At first glance there seemed to be nothing about, not even redshanks but on the spit leading out to the wreck there were plenty. It was difficult to see what they were, certainly some Dunlin, possibly with some Knots mixed in. They were all bunched together sitting rather still and quiet, as if waiting for something to happen.
On the way back, walking towards the little car park we had an
interesting episode with a Sparrow Hawk. It hoped over the hedge, just ahead, flew away along the path, but below the hight of the hedge; it then swerved into the field and dropped to the ground. It seemed that it had approached it’s prey by stealth using the hedge as cover, before dropping for the kill. It soon rose up and sat on the hedge where it seemed to loose whatever it had caught. Repeatedly, it rose up in the wind and dropped down to find the lost meal but to no avail. It’s blue/grey back and speckled front were clearly visible as we approached, he was clearly more interested in retrieving his kill than us.