Spent the morning over at Hayling Is, arriving just after half seven. As I walked up onto Sandy Point I could see plenty of Common and Sandwich Terns moving east towards the Chichester Harbour channel. Also a small party of Sanderling were catching the early morning sun on the beach.

Sandwich Tern, Hayling Is, 16 Sep 2009

I walked round towards Black Point and was immediately greeted by a very strong northerly gusting wind.  After about 10 minutes I bumped into Andy Johnson and we walked around Sandy Point NR together. The only reward of note was a single Wheatear. We then had an hour or so sea watching. We did see several small flocks of Ducks flying into the harbour, mainly Wigeon with a few Pintail and Teal for good measure. We then had the highlight of the morning. A single Arctic Skua that Andy had seen earlier was pestering a couple of Terns over the point. It then alighted on the sea and we (the royal we, aka Andy) picked up a second Skua nearby. After a few minutes, what could have been a third Skua came out of the harbour and again alighted just off Sandy point. Darren Evans then joined us on his quest for images of the Red Throated Diver that has been frequenting the Hayling seafront over the last few days. We then all split and I walked back along the front and came across a flock of 116 Sanderling roosting the high tide out on the beach.

Sanderling, Hayling Is, 16 Sep 2009