I visited the south coast for a long weekend to visit family. My dad had always wanted to visit the Pagham Harbour RSPB nature reserve near Chichester in West Sussex, so we decided to spend a day a Pagham. We arrived at 10:00am on a Sunday and headed for the visitor centre to get some advice from the RSPB volunteers.
The visitor centre at Pagham Harbour
The nature reserve is a large estuary that fills and empties with the tides. We hadn’t considered the tide times but we were lucky the tide was out when we arrived so there should be plenty of wading birds around. We were lucky with the weather as well, it was a sunny mild Autumn day.
It’s a good idea to check the tide times when visitng the reserve
After speaking to one of the volunteers we decided to follow a footpath along the edge of the estuary down to the sea. This was a good decision as we got close to Litte Egrets, Curlews and the closest I’ve ever been to a Grey Heron without it flying away.
A close encounter with a Grey Heron
This is a good area to see Egrets flying around the estuary, you can get close to some of them.
This Little Egret has caught a fish
We walked down to beach and had a rest for an hour before walking back the way we came. By this time the tide had come in and the estuary was flooded.
The beach at Pagham harbour
High tide at Pagham Harbour
Curlew
We wanted to walk along the north side of the estuary but by 4pm the weather had turned and it started raining so we returned to the car. It was a great day out, it’s one of those reserves you can visit any time of year and there’ll be plenty to see.
My dad enjoyed his day out at Pagham Harbour
Fen Photos. 