Pennington Marsh - 31st August 2014

As Summer waned into Autumn we headed down to the South Coast one Sunday morning for a long walk around Pennington & Keyhaven Marshes. Plenty of waders on show in some gorgeous light. Bar tailed Godwit & Redshank catching my eye. Sandwich Terns perched just off the shoreline hard to miss in the bright sunshine. As usual the tiny spit of sand left exposed by the tide was alive with Turnstone, these small little waders routing through the seaweed. Summer migrant Wheatear were present all along the sea wall feeding up before there return journey back south abundant in numbers.

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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.

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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

Sika Sunday

A beautiful crisp morning, bathed in Golden Winter Sunlight, Spot on! Sat Nav set,  3 x Memory Cards packed just in case!! The destination the RSPB's flagship Heathland reserve at Arne overlooking Poole Harbour and the distant Brownsea Island. After a short sunday morning layin and a steady drive down the 70 odd miles from home to Dorset, We ( the Girlfriend and I ) arrived around 11.35am grabbed a quick bite to eat and off we set.

Pretty much instantly distracted by the bird feeders next to the new Information Kiosk (I say new, but then I haven't been for 3 Years). Teeming with life, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Robin & a pair of Nuthatch all visiting on some kind of chain line. Also strutting his stuff beneath the feeders a male Peacock, not your average bird table sighting.

Male Chaffinch

Male Chaffinch

We headed first out on the Shipstal Point trail towards the Salt marshes and Poole Harbour beyond. First sighting a rather large herd of Sika Deer grazing on a paddock field in the middle of the reserve. 

Grazing Sika Herd

The first birdlife encountered as we headed towards the shoreline, the haunting call of a Curlew, another 100 yards through to the edge of the Salt marsh and the culprit could be seen, joining a passing group of Avocet heading towards the Middlebere Channel. Now I'm not sure what it was that flushed the birds as it moved so fast, falcon-like low over the crests of the waves as it disappeared around the corner of the headland. But if I had to take an educated guess I'd say a Merlin however I can neither confirm nor deny.

Further on around the path whilst trying to get a picture of a small flock of birds dropping in and out of the heather, to which im 99.9% sure were Meadow Pipits, The arrival of 2 Sika Bucks on the path below rather whisked me away. We got so close that I slowly moved to the other side of them in the end, walking straight past, as the light was better for a picture. Bit disappointing as its supposed to be a Wild beast but Im not complaining about the pictures. The path ended in about 30 yards right on the edge of the large area of Salt marsh overlooking Poole Harbour and the distant town of Poole. About 50-60 yards out was the remaining Sika herd, probably 40-45 deer.

Sika Buck 

Sika Buck 

My Fave I Think - Sika Buck 

Sika Buck

Sika Buck  

Sika Hinds

Being on ground level spotting Birds on the marshland proved a little tricky, with just the large bank of Oystercatchers visible on the waters edge a few Hundred present I would think. We took the boardwalk path around to the Double-Decked hide over looking the marsh, bringing a slightly different viewing angle and some slightly different birds than im used too. Curlew, Brent Goose, Shelduck, Wigeon, Teal & Little Egret all feeding out on the marsh. Lots of small groups of Teal, rising from hidden channels and joining other smallish groups. Hard to say the kind of numbers present really. The peaceful sound of the water lapping against the peaty edge with the odd Duck call was broken by the hoarse cacophony of a circling Raven.

Oystercatchers

Brent Geese

With the wind battering the open hide windows, we headed back towards the Car for a drink and the path out towards the other hide overlooking the eastern end of the Middlebere Channel. Whilst watching the procession of Sika crossing the path, slightly reminiscent of the wagon trains from the western films, We were rewarded by 6 Goldcrest fluttering about in the Silver birch tree above our heads. The walk back to the car also brought a slightly more wild sighting of the big Sika Buck.

The Big Boy

After taking the winter finch walk back to the visitor kiosk and only being rewarded with a small flock of 15-20 Starling, we headed out on to the Coombe Trail, on good authority from the RSPB staff that its about this time of day the Short Eared Owls come in. Spending a good 45 mins scanning the surrounding Heathland with no reward not even a Stonechat on the odd Gorse bushes, We headed down to the hide, briefly taking in 2 Black-tailed Godwits fighting on the waters edge.

Now the Middlebere Channel at this time of the day (3pm) looks quite an impressive stretch of river, but quite deceiving really as the tide was heading out, more and more small groups of Avocet headed down to the where the rapidly retreating water left and increasing expanse of mudflat. Numbers ranging into the thousands traveling westerly down the channel. Brilliant stuff having not seen the graceful Avocet before in the wild. In front of the hide large numbers covered the width of the river, the water appearing quite deep coming no further up than the tops of there stilt like legs. Also sifting through the shallow mud more Black-tailed Godwits, Redshank, Teal & Snipe. A large flock of Lapwing circled in the distant fields. 

Avocet

Avocet

The walk back across the Heath still resulted in no Short Eared's but the time was going fast, traffic all the way home was pretty heavy, but didn't spoil a great day out! Even home, just in time for Mum's Sunday roast! Apologies for the rather descriptive account, I hope all that got this far are not too bored!