12th June - Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

After a couple of days of rain the forecast was a little better today, but as I walked around the sea wall at Hill Head in a warm jacket I wondered if there was going to be a heat wave!  As I crossed the harbour bridge the young female Marsh Harrier was hunting over the reeds on the far side.

Ii was back at Titchfield, mainly because there was to be overcast conditions today and that would not be conducive to finding butterflies, which is what I should be doing at this time of year.

I entered the reserve on the west side with Reed Warbler and Linnet singing by the main gate.  I headed to the Meon Shore hide, because you do.  In front of the hide an Oystercatcher was on the small island in front of the hide.

I was taken by the orange beak contrasting with the black feathers of the breast.

With the strong south westerly wind there were Swifts and House Martins once more, but they were at the north scrape, so I didn't stay long in the Meon Shore and walked around to the Pumfrett.

The Marsh Harrier was back and fighting the wind on the far side of the scrape, something it seems to do quite a bit.

It reaches the causeway then lets the wind take it up and it heads back to do it all again.

The male Goosander was on the causeway, but took the time to swim out on to the south scrape. 

Gone is the smart bottle green head feathers and the dark grey back, having been replaced by the eclipse plumage that will no doubt confuse a lot of visitors once again, claiming a female red head.

This is now the Goosander's third summer here at Titchfield.  It spent a lot of time with its head under water and then coming up with mud.  The water level being too shallow to dive.

The Swifts were performing once again.  There were several House Martins and the odd Swallow with them.  They would come into the wind from the north, and hang in the air in front of the hide once again.

Today they were flying and hawking a lot closer to the water.

Some incredible agility to catch the flying insects.

Last Saturday I never got to the Spurgin, so I made my where there today.  A surprise was this Little Egret dropping in.

When this Little Grebe was first seen it looked like it had a youngster on its back, it headed into the reeds and I wasn't able to get a definitive view.  A little later it came back out and then dived and preened, so no chick, but maybe there was a nest in the reeds and the chick was there?

The female Marsh Harrier would continue its hunting along the edge of the water and over the reeds.  Here it attracted attention from a Black-headed Gull.

A Common Tern came past heading to the scrapes.

The Swifts were showing well in front of the Spurgin Hide as well.

The pick of the day's Swift images.

I walked back to the Pumfrett Hide with more hope than anything else.

Like Saturday, as we moved into the afternoon the Swifts dried up and were not to be seen over the water.  A welcome addition amongst the Black-headed Gulls were these two Mediterranean Gulls.  If you look closely there is a little black in the primary number one indicating these are third calendar year birds and will be breeding next year.

Always look good against the dark background.

They were calling to each other as they flew over the scrape.

There were signs of some sunshine, but still a lot of cloud around.  Leaving the hide I had a walk around Darter's Dip, there were blue-tailed Damselflies and quite a few Azure Damselflies.

Told from the very similar Cammon Blue by the thin blue strip towards the end of the abdomen and the black "L" shape on sections 1 and 2 of the abdomen where they meet the thorax.

With the strong wind and overcast conditions I decided to leave and like a couple of weeks ago missed something, that being a Honey Buzzard.  Never mind the weather looks to be a lot better tomorrow so hopeful I can get down to what I should be doing at this time of year.

9th June - Blashford Lakes, Hampshire

After the relative success of photographing the Swifts at Titchfield on the weekend I was keen to try with another aerial master, the Sand Martin.  This had me travelling to Blashford Lakes where the Goosander hide provides a good spot to watch and hopefully photograph the Sand Martin around the nesting colony in front of the hide.  It was also an opportunity to walk the new path that leads from the Tern Hide to the Goosander.  The gates and path have been there for quite sometime, but always closed.  Now it seems the Wildlife Trust has settled the differences with the other partners that own the lakes and we can now use this path.

As I got out of the car I could hear a Garden Warbler singing from the area of the viewing platform, but despite a good search I couldn't see it.  I decided to start from the Tern hide.  There were Black-headed Gulls about and plenty of Sand Martin low over the water, which was a good sign for later.  A Lapwing was on the shore to the right of the hide and had a chick, which meant it was on high alert.

It turned out the Lapwing was concerned about the presence of a couple of Jackdaws.  Looking at the size of the chick I don't think they were a threat, but the Lapwing was determined to chase them away.

Working its way around the edge of the shore was a Little Ringed Plover.  Not sure if they have been successful breeding this year.

It flew across the water to a small island where it hid away from the Egyptian Geese that were present.

The weather was being kind so I decided to walk around to the Goosander hide.  It was a much more pleasant walk than along the road and it was also quite quick.  I passed the singing Garden Warbler, but again it wasn't showing.

On my own in the hide I settled in to watch the Sand Martin that were all around the nest holes.  Once again it was going to take a lot of shots so I decided to start with the easy ones where they sat by the nest holes.

These were adults coming in with food, but it seemed like the young were well advanced and in many cases had fledged but were returning to the nest hole. 

here an adult comes in and the young bird screams to be fed.

But I wanted to try and get them in flight, so I watched and quickly realised that they were not as easy as the Swifts, much small and incredibly agile, you would follow them then they would just disappear.  I tried different methods, tracking them and also focusing on a spot and waiting.  It turned out following them was the best approach.

Here you can see the wear on the feathers, with the primaries and the secondaries showing a ragged edge.

Sand Martins have a fondness for riparian habitats and they will dig their own nest tunnels into the sand banks of cliffs and rivers.  Here the work has been done for them and it has encouraged quite a large colony.

This adult has a beak full of insects and it begs the question, how do they not drop what they have caught when they try and catch something else.  Here there is more than one insect in the bill, maybe, like the Puffin, they can hold what they have caught with their tongue.

The big difference from the other "martin" we have in the United Kingdom, the house Martin, is the lack of a white rump and brown breast band, which goes under the chin.  Once again the feather wear is evident on the wings and tail, this comes from going in and out of the nest tunnel

This was a lot harder than the Swifts

There were quite a few Fledged birds flying around with the adults and there was a lot of calling.  The fledglings had quite a bit of feather development to go through as can be see by the tail feathers here of this youngster.

The Fledglings still dependent on the adults for food, this youngster calling to the adult to be fed.

The juveniles like the defined white chin and band underneath.

Not a bad collection from the shots I had taken, not up to the standard of the Swifts at the weekend though.

It wasn't all Sand Martins though, this Roe Deer kid appearing and then dashing for cover in the nearby bushes.

A female, most probably the mother appearing a little later in the same area.

With all the Sand Martins about I had expected a predator, muuy money was on a Sparrowhawk, so didn't expect this Hobby.  It didn't make any effort to come close to the colony, but the Sand Martin disappeared after it appeared.

Showers were now moving across the area and there was some impressive clouds away to the west, again in black and white.

I took the chance to walk back to the Tern Hide while it was dry, the Sand Martin had gone so I was keen to see if they were still around.  The new path walks past the Clear pond with a view we would not have been able to see previously.

There is also a screen that overlooks a patch of waste ground that the Lapwing are being encouraged to use.  There was one chick in view.

Back in the tern Hide there were a few Sand Martin about and the Hobby showed again.  Out on the water was a group of fifteen Great Crested Grebes that all dived together.  The Little Ringed Plover was still about and in one of the showers a Common Tern passed close to the hide.

As the showers moved East the clouds, once again to the west, were looking impressive, this scene reminding me of distant snowy mountains in the north west of Canada!

So I managed to get some Sand Martin images and I think I was lucky as most of the birds have now fledged and they will not be hanging around the nest bank for much longer.  It was also interesting to walk the path that has been hidden for so long.