Birdwatching
The Harbour is an estuary area of deep salt water channels; bounded by mud banks which are covered twice daily by tides flowing through the narrow entrance. There are sandbanks and shingle near the entrance and much of the shore at the high-tide mark is of shingle.
Birds choose to spend all or part of the year here because the conditions suit them, that is there is abundant food and little pollution or disturbance.
Mud uncovered between the tides is the richest source of food. Waders, such as Curlew; Godwits, Redshank and Dunlin, probe with their long beaks in the mud for small marine animals like worms, small shellfish and crabs. The plover family of waders pick their food from the mud surface and Turnstones find theirs under seaweed and pebbles. Shelduck sift the surface of the mud for tiny snails (Hydrobia).
Other birds feed on plants growing on the mud; Brent geese and Wigeon eat green algae (Enteromorpha) and Eel grass (Zostera); Coot and Mute Swans are also vegetarians. Others are fish-eaters; they may dive from a height (terns) or from the water surface (grebes, Cormorants and sea ducks like Red-breasted Merganser and Goldeneye) or stand and fish in the shallows (Heron).When the high tide covers the mud flats all mud-feeding birds need somewhere quiet to rest and preen. Waders fly to nearby fields, saltmarsh or high shingle (high tide roosts) while ducks and geese rest on the water surface or ashore.
Very few estuarine birds are Residents (that is they spend all the year here and breed in the area). Most are travellers and are either Winter Visitors (they nest elsewhere and winter here), Passage Migrants (they spend some time here in spring and again in late summer and autumn between their breeding and wintering places) or Summer Visitors (nesting here, then leaving for their wintering places when their young can fly) .
A regular count of waders and wildfowl in Chichester Harbour is made by a team of ornithologists and the results are published annually in the Sussex Bird Report. The number given with each species described is a rough average, taken from recent counts of the Harbour populations, for the months during which each species is most likely to be seen.
More Information:
- How to be a Birdwatcher
- Enjoying Wildlife
- Regular bird watching walks and boat trips through the winter as part of our year round programme of walks and activities
