Almost predictable that today, Thursday, would see an improvement after yesterday's weather and, despite being mostly 'off reserve', urban and suburban birding, no worse for species.
So a walk round Petersfield Pond (with breakfast!) produced first singing Willow Warbler of year and a Swallow in with half a dozen or more Sand Martins. Plenty of Chiffchaff and Blackcap song, single Reed Bunting and Grey Wagtail. Lots of aggressive Egyptian Geese and a loud Nuthatch but sadly (and not unsurprisingly) the Little Gulls had moved on. Every low bough dipping into the water seemed to hold a Coots nest.
Shopping in Chichester produced just the male Peg on the opposite turret with the female now down on four eggs, a Grey Wagtail on the roofs near H&M and two Buzzards over the A27.
A lunch stop on the bench at the Oysterbed's carpark gave five mergansers, twenty odd Great-crested Grebes, an indeterminate number of Med Gulls and a point blank ground level juvenile female Peg which came within inches of a Redshank just in front of me before powering off down the harbour. More distantly, two of four Sandwich Terns put on a great high level flying display.
