South Coast & Rooksbury 10th - 13th Feb

After a couple of weeks of fairly bright weather, the rains returned, seemingly at weekends and lunch hours when I had time to get out. I did having watched it piss down for most of Saturday decided to brave it on the Sunday and take a drive down to the coast.

First stop Hatchet Pond in the New Forest a nice waterside car park allowing a good view of the pond without having to get wet, Mallard, Black-headed Gull and a couple of Herring Gull all present. From there I headed towards Sowley Pond, picking up a lone Red Kite, presumedly at the Southern most point of the UK range. 

Plenty of Chaffinches flew up from the roadside ditches but no sign of any Brambling. I passed several ploughed fields one covered in around 2000 Rooks, the other a mix of Lapwing and Pied Wagtail.

Arriving at Sowley Pond, I found my self a viewing gap from the road having a quick scan for some Mallard, Great-crested Grebe and around 30 Pochard. Quite a high count for an otherwise quiet lake.

Next stop on my wet whistle stop tour of the south coast, Lepe, not timing my visit very well as the tide was mere metres from the car park reducing the beach to a small sand pit. Plenty of Turnstones and Black-headed Gulls touring the car park, with the occasional flyby of a larger Herring Gull. I did have a rather amusing encounter watching the Turnstones flipping over pebbles before being scattered by an incoming Carrion Crow, who then proceeded to steal said stone.

With the tide reaching further in I headed the short distance around the coast to Calshot, by this time the weather having taken an even further turn for the worse. Having to park the car passenger side on to the wind and rain, I managed to make out around 25 Brent Geese and 2 Black-tailed Godwit feeding on a grassy area in front of the power station.

Giving up for the day I headed home the scenic route up the Test Valley, stopping at Mottisfont for a ganders on the bridges, the only bird of note, a male Kestrel perched atop a bank side tree.

Carrion Crow - Pebble and all!

Monday morning on the way to work, the car gives up the ghost just yards from the front door, lucky it wasn't the day before 40 miles from home. The garage say it will cost more to repair than what its worth so seemed like the kick up the arse I needed to look for a new motor. Which by Tuesday evening having found, looked around and test drove, I agreed to purchase. I've never spent £8000 quite so quickly nor I doubt I will again.

Using the truck as my daily commute, I did manage to get out on the Wednesday lunchtime around the lakes, but the wildlife seemed as scarce as the sunshine, so I made do with photographing the resident Mute Swans. Who still seem to be pretty happy with the presence of last years cygnet, although I am guessing in coming weeks he/she might find him/herself out on his/her ear.

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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