Birdwatch

The last of the wintering ducks are just about hanging on here, with a handful of wigeon refusing to leave, but otherwise the vast flocks of a couple of months ago have all gone.

In their place are a few pairs of shelduck, female mallards with their broods of ducklings in tow, lapwings and redshanks on their nesting territories and, appearing for the lucky few only, a fine drake garganey.

Hobbies, splendid migrant falcons, are also here in numbers now, the occasional sighting of last month being replaced by regular groups of two or three hunting small insects over the brooks.

Few birds are as incessantly and gracefully on the move as a black tern Chlidonias niger.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette May 14