8th December - Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

It was another gloomy morning, but at least it wasn't raining.  As I drove south the clouds started to lift and on arriving at Cliff Road it was brighter with some sign of sunshine but a mist out on the Solent and a very fresh southerly wind.

I spent sometime by the bench watching the water, there was a large flock of Brent Geese on the beach and a group of Sanderling flew past, probably flushed from the beach away to the west.  On the water was a single immature male Eider and a Sandwich Tern flew east.

I walked down to the visitor centre checked in, then made my way towards the west side.  The tide was rising and the drake Goosander was in the harbour snorkeling and fishing, this time quite close in.

The dark and bright colouring of the Goosander always makes it hard to photograph, the exposure constantly changing.  This morning it was quite gloomy which made it harder still.  In Good light the head is a lovely bottle green, today it appeared black with a hint of green.

It was being annoyed by a Coot and in defence showed off the one advantage it has, the serrated teeth in the bill, needless to say the Coot backed away.

The Goosander headed out of the harbour and I continued the walk around to the sea wall.  In the bay there were at least a dozen Common Gull.

As I entered the reserve something must have flushed the Brent Geese from the beach as a huge skein of calling Brent flew overhead.

The first thing to strike me when looking out from the Meon Shore hide was the amount of birds, the scrape appeared to be covered in Teal.  In amongst them as well were Wigeon, Gadwall and Shoveler and this single drake Pintail, not a common visitor to the scrapes but always welcome.

Snipe Island was busy, not only Snipe, but Teal and Redshank were roosting, but its the Snipe that grab the attention.

I counted twenty eight to start with, but others continued to join.

It was a case of keep counting as they appear from nowhere, the largest count I managed was 42 Snipe, muy highest so far this year.

Common Gull numbers were good too with at least twenty two adult birds on the water, they too would come and go, probably commuting from the bay on the other side of the reeds.

The island directly in front of the hide was almost submerged, what mud there was visible still held an attraction for this Lapwing, the length of crest probably means this is a male bird.

One of the many Marsh Harriers around the reserve then put in an appearance.  Eight were photographed last week on the meadow during the rain storm and a figure of eleven has been mentioned, making it the highest ever here at the Haven, a big success.  

This female type cruised down the east side of the scrape.

Then came out over the scrape causing chaos with the Teal and Lapwing.

There were were two other large predators on the scrape although they disn't cause so much panic as they flew out to sea.  If these Great Black-backed Gulls were about in the spring they would have caused considerable distress, but at this time of year they are just given a watchful eye.

Snipe could be seen flying around the scrape before returning to the islands, however these two waders looked a little different and turned out to be a couple of Dunlin, a rare visitor to the scrapes at this time of year.

With the Lapwing absent the small patch of mud in front of the hide proved attractive to the Snipe and four dropped on and started to probe with their long bills.

They appeared to be conscious that they were out in the open, but when all the scrape went up they didn't fly off, but just flattened themselves to the mud and hoped the camouflage would work.

Three of the Snipe together.

One by one the Snipe flew off to the safety of Snipe Island.  It was a case of watching their posture and waiting for them to take off.

There were good numbers of Shoveler, with quite a few drakes fighting for the lone females, this involved a lot of head bobbing and short flights as they fought off any rivals.

The clouds were gathering and it was now very gloomy so I decided to head for home, despite the conditions I had quite a good morning with the birds on the scrape.  Walking around the harbour the tide was high and I stopped to get a view of the Sanderling on the beach.

They were roosing high on the beach as the tide was crashing around the groynes accentuated by the wind.  This provided a nice back ground for the snoozing Sanderling.

The crashing waves.

There were several Turnstone amongst the Sanderling, but I could only find one Ringed Plover.

The rain finally arrived as I left for home, but it hadn't been that bad a December day.

6th December - Blashford Lakes, Hampshire

I can't seem to shake off this cold or virus and I had another bad night which resulted in me meeting Ian a little later than planned.  We were meeting at Blashford and I turned up at the Tern hide just after 9:30am.  There was some sunshine, but quite a bit of cloud around and a chance of heavy showers through the day.

Ian was the only person in the hide, although I had missed a large party that were quite loud, probably a good thing.  There were birds in front of the hide, mostly Coot, but also a couple of  male Pochard, which was nice.

Once upon a time this smart diving duck was quite common here, but like everywhere in the south there numbers have dwindled through the winter.

It took the time for a preen and bathe.

A Great Crested Grebe also came quite close.

The duck were spread out across the lake with Pintail and Shoveler to the west of the hide and Wigeon on the far bank.  I was able to make out a couple of pairs of Goldeneye and there was a group of ten Goosander, eight males and two redheads.  The duck numbers though were lower than usual, maybe a result of the visits by the White-tailed Eagles.

I picked up a raptor at the back of the lake, compared with the Crow that decided to mob it we were satisfied it was a Goshawk.  Then a Peregrine came over and was quickly joined by another.  They flew back and forth across the lake making the occasional dive towards the duck, but nothing serious.

What was assumed to be a female Peregrine due to the size landed on one of the islands and was then joined by a crow.  The Crow proceeded to walk around the falcon and could be seen to be calling, baiting the Peregrine.  Then the Crow took off and was quickly followed by the Peregrine and it looked to get its own back on the grow, chasing after it and making lunges.

The crow eventually got away and the Peregrine drifted away to the east.  Looking out across the water, when the sun came out the trees at the back of the lake were lit up.

A male Tufted Duck was now in front of the hide.

Just before we left the hide two Red head Goosander flew over.

We walked around to the Ivy Lake and above in the Alders was a good sized flock of Siskin.

We made our way to the north hide in the hope that the Bittern that has been around the last few weeks would show.  Settling in the view looked bleak, but fortunately that was about to change.

First, below the hide a Water Rail appeared and rather than dash across the open area it fed and gave some lovely views.

Its been quite awhile since I have been able to get such close views of this secretive bird.  It didn't seem concerned about the lens being poked out of the hide.

Here you can see the feet, the long tarsus are not webbed or lobed like the Coot and Moorhen.

Finally it crept away into the reeds, but we did see it briefly again, the more typical dash across the open and it remained quite vocal all the time we were in the hide.

A Kingfisher called but never showed, then it returned, this time flying to perch in amongst the reeds.

It was a male bird, probably a first winter due to the white spot on the tip of the bill.  It flew across the reeds from the left side and settled on the seed head of a reed mace in the channel opened up for the bittern!

Everybody loves a Kingfisher and on this dreary afternoon the bright colours were extremely welcome.

The change in posture indicated that it might have seen a fish.

Then just after this it dived into the water.

And came back with what looks like a small Stickleback.

The fish swallowed it changed perches once again, still on a Reedmace seed head though.

I don't think I ever tire of the amazing colours that are created by the refraction of the light on the feathers.

Back to the original seed head, it sat out the shower.

Then the whistled call and it flew off across the lake.

Last visit here I counted eleven Great Egret, there were numerous sightings today but the most together was three.  This individual flying away after spending sometime in the reed bed.

There were at least four Chiffchaff feeding around the Reedmace, but they were so mobile I couldn't get a photograph.  This Wren though came down originally to drink, but then spent time foraging amongst the vegetation.

We finally left the hide and walked around to the Goosander hide  where a count of twenty Goosander justified the hides name.  They were distant like they always are and there was little else about.  Just before we left a Little Egret flew in to stand alongside the Great Egret, providing a good comparison.

No Bittern, but an interesting day, Blashford can deliver, you just have to be patient.