South Coast Birding - First Hit At The Year List

With a new year, patch & garden list created I just needed some Bird Species to go on it. Sunday 6th seemed a good as day as any, destination the South Coast plenty of rare-ish species showing up on the Solent or adjoining reserves. First port of call Hayling Island Oyster beds, a small area off of the main Hayling Island which juts out into Langstone Harbour around Portsmouth. Thick Fog! It had been pretty bad as we left home but nearer the coast it was even worse also bitterly cold.

That pretty much downed all hope of some passing Sea Birds as visibility was pretty poor. The usual ticks entered the notebook and a couple of coastal specialities Redshank, Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit, Shelduck, Grey Plover & Dunlin. Surprises came in the form of Green Sandpiper & Greenshank and its always nice to get the illusive Scaup in the bag, a female and juvenile male showed quite well through the fog one of the pools.

Brent Geese seemed to be everywhere along the Oyster Beds in groups of ones and twos, to dozens, allowing pretty close views, but the light was so bad the camera remained off. The Brent Goose seemed to be the bird of the day as we headed a mile or so back towards Portsmouth to the Hants Wildlife Trust Reserve at Farlington Marshes, here Brent Geese were everywhere from larger groups of 50-60 to 600. 

I'm sure throughout the reserve there had to be at least 1500+ wintering on the reserve and nearby mudflats.

Brent Goose

Brent Goose

Brent Geese - 1/12th of the view of one feeding flock.

Other highlights from Farlington were 2 pairs of Red-breasted Merganser feeding out on a channel left by the tide, not a bird we are to accustomed to seeing in the South. Large numbers of Teal & Shoveler, a pair of Stonechat showed briefly in the sunshine as the Fog lifted for 20 mins or so.

With the thick fog descending again we got back in the car and drove back towards Southampton, stopping at Titchfield Haven, quickly picking up a few Gull species at the reserves entrance. Kingfisher, Pochard and 3 rather surprising Barnacle Geese the highlights of the visit. All in all a very quiet day which I can only put down to the weather, with a paltry 53 species spotted. Luckily a fair few I am not likely to catch up with that often away from the coast.

http://www.facebook.com/MartinClayPhotography Up to date pictures and sightings, I would be more than grateful for any 'Likes' or Comments on my FB Photography Page too so feel free to comment or criticise about anything.

Rain, Rain Go Away!!!

With a theatre trip in Southampton booked for saturday night, a trip down to the New Forest seemed like the perfect tonic to while the hours away! Being probably the only birder in hampshire not to see the Dark-eyed Junco we headed first to the Hawkhill Inclosure, after taking the wrong turning first up, lots of swearing and lack of phone signal ensued before I decided to try further down the road. A little Tip don't trust google maps postcodes!

Its fair to say my mood didn't really improve much all day after this! Not helped by the sudden downpour as well pulled into Hawkhill car park. 20 minutes later before it eased up, allowing me down the short path to where other birders waited patiently. 45 minutes later and nothing more than a few Chaffinch, wet and cold I gave up, hopes dashed by one guy saying he'd been there since dawn and the target bird hadn't been seen at all today! Sods law, was joking with Nat on the drive down that it had probably flown home!

A brief stop at Hatchet Pond showed good views of Black-headed Gulls, Common Gull, Mute Swan, Rook, Jackdaw, Moorhen, Teal, Mallard, Cormorant & Little Egret.

Black-headed Gull

With no let up in the dismal weather we drove on down to Lepe beach over looking the Solent and the Isle Of Wight. To say it was raining was an understatement, all hopes of looking out the car windows with the Binoculars were dashed, with gale force winds and the IOW disappearing behind the torrential rain for most of the afternoon, reduced us to a quick kip and about 20 minutes of birding in between monsoons. Shame really as the seashore was teeming with wading birds. Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Whimbrel, Turnstone, Ringed Plover and around 200 Brent Geese on the shoreline.

Brent Geese

Now I apologise for the quality of the photographs, but I think as it was tipping it down I don't think they are to bad. Im undicided as to which spiecies I've captured however, my initial thoughts while watching them scurry up and down the beach was Sanderling, and on checking the bird book in the car that was still my thinking. But having checked the pictures once home and doing a little bit of googling on the area I'm was then drawn towards Grey Plover. Any help in identifying said birds would be a great help and allow me to log a new species on my list for the year because to be perfectly honest I was flummoxed!

Many Thanks to Ploddingbirder & Bryan Rains for clarifying that it is Grey Plover and the Birds in flight Dunlin.

Grey Plover

Dunlin 

Grey Plover