20th August - Hook, Warsash and Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

Showers were forecast today and all around as I drove south the clouds were dark and threatening.  The plan today was to start at Hook, specifically the TLC field for Horses on Workman Lane.  I parked up and walked around to the field.  Swallows were all around the overhead wires, juvenile birds having just fledged and waiting to be fed by the parents.

I walked up to the area known as the Donkey Field which currently doesn't have a donkey in it, and had a Wheatear pointed out to me in the field opposite.

There is a fence line that runs east alongside the Donkey Field and this is the area where the chats get at this time of year.  There were two Stonechats present and a very distant single Whinchat.

I was though here for the Yellow Wagtails, two flew over calling but kept going.  I walked around the filed and checked the horses and found four feeding around the horse's mouths and feet.

Apparently there have been up to twelve in the area, the maximum I saw was four at one time.

I walked back to Workman Lane and concentrated on the swallows on the wires.

Here a juvenile Swallow still showing the yellow gape on the mouth.

You wait for the young bird to flap its wings and then you know the adult is coming to feed it.

The juveniles stayed on the wires, but the adults were also perching in the nearby oak tree, not something I have seen before.

Amongst the Swallows were a few immature Sand Martins.

And immature House Martins that were also perching in the oak tree.

I decided to walk down to the beach behind the sub station.  Walking down the lane there was a Whitethroat amongst the bramble.

And a little further along the obligatory Painted Lady.

As I came out on to the beach I disturbed two Curlew.

I wanted to check the gorse area to see if there were any Whinchats and Wheatear, but it was very quiet, with nothing moving at all.

The clouds were bubbling up away to the west, rain was coming and the wind had picked up.  The clouds look very impressive in black and white.

Oystercatchers were moving, all mostly flying up Southampton Water.

When I reached the slipway at the bottom of the path that runs down adjacent to Solent Breezes holiday park I noticed a collection of gulls on the foreshore.  As I walked down to get a closer look I passed a Common Gull on the beach.

There was a ring on the left leg, however the only characters I could see was the number '3', which isn't going to be much use in getting information.

I initially thought the bird to be an adult but on a closer look you can see that the tertiaries are in moult which would indicate that this is probably a third year bird moulting into the adult plumage.

The gulls on the foreshore were Mediterranean Gulls, adults having lost their black hoods but retaining the pure white plumage, a black smudge behind the eye and the lovely red bill.

From Warsash I drove around to Titchfield Haven once more.  I parked on the sea wall and away to the west there were very dark clouds that were threatening rain.  I decided to try and watch out the possible storm by having lunch in the Meon Shore Hide.  Things hadn't changed much from my last visit, the water level was high and the young Common Tern was sitting with the parent on the wooden perches.

There was only a splash of rain as the storm passed to the north of us, but this did provide a lovely dark sky to photograph the Common Terns against.

For some reason everything went up on the scrape and then flew around for awhile.  This brought the Black-tailed Godwits close to the hide, this individual passing right in front of the hide.

Eventually everything settled down and from nowhere a Spoonbill appeared at the top end of the scrape.  

I wanted to check the bay for the reported Garganey so walked around to the viewing platform to find there were no duck.  This bird has made a habit of disappearing, so it may possibly be still around maybe in front of the closed Suffern Hide!.

Watching from the bridge a Common Tern fished in the river water.

Another patch of heavy dark clouds were threatening from the west, the onshore winds helping the many wind surfers out on the Solent.

The clouds were very dramatic over Fawley.

The rain hit as I was driving along the A27 and M27 home.  At times visibility being reduced to the car in front.  Water was everywhere but probably not being collected in the right places.  By the time I turned onto the M3 it was dry and remained so all the way home.

18th August - Hill Head and Titchfield Haven Canal Path, Hampshire

Has the weather finally broken?  This morning it was overcast, if still humid and warm.  I headed to Titchfield Haven and arrived with the tide well out and plenty of beach exposed.  I walked on to the Sailing Club spit and then down on to the beach through the pools of water.

Common Terns were together at the edge of the water, here and adult, immature and juvenile birds.

There were Redshank and Turnstone feeding on the mud and of course a good number of Sanderling.

Some of the Sanderling were still showing bits of summer plumage.

But it was interesting to watch the Common Terns once again and a similar behaviour to that of the terns on the scrape.  One bird was carrying a fish and seemed again to want to feed the juveniles who seemed to ignore the bird.

Lots of calling here between adults and a single juvenile.

Not successful in feeding it flew around with the fish.

Again tried to offer the fish.

But then when it realised that there were no takers, it flew off.

I went on to the west side of the reserve and into the Meon Shore hide.  I was greeted by the scrape full of water with the islands now hardly showing.  The reason for this was to move birds from the botulism area, but it has totally ruined the scrape for passage waders.  I didn't stay long and walked to the Pumfrett hide where the light was poor and the north scrape completely dry in the areas you can see, but much of the area is obscured by the reeds.  The Spurgin hide was even worse so I walked back to the east side and the Meadow Hide.

Looking across to the Duck Bay a Great Egret was sat on a branch over the water.

A couple of Little Egrets were also present, but little else.  There was a report of Cattle Egrets but I couldn't see them, so I walked to the Knight's Bank hide and the Cattle Egrets were sat in a tree at the back of the Frying Pan.

An Immature Marsh Harrier scattered everything from the Frying Pan, my first for some time here.  Then came the rain and quite heavy, but very welcome.

In a break in the rain I headed back to the car, there was a report of Whinchat along the Canal Path at Posbrook.  It was raining when I reached the car, but as I headed north the rain stopped, and the roads were dry and the sun came out.

I walked to the brick bridge, then climbed the gate and walked along the patch adjacent to the old Pony Field.  At the far end there were two Whinchat, one initially showing well on a post.

The other Whinchat was in the bramble bushes and was then joined by the other bird, both sitting together.

As well as the Whinchat there was also a report of Spotted and Pied Flycatcher further down the Canal Path.  I couldn't find the flycatchers, but there were several Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs 'fly catching' from an Ash tree.

Some photographs of the Willow Warblers

The floods looked dry, but above them there were good numbers of Swallows and House Martins.  The Swallows stayed out over the dry floods while the House Martins were hawking around the side of the trees.

It looked like the majority of the House Martins were immature birds from this year and preparing for that long journey south.

A disappointing visit today, the water levels are not good for birds at the moment, but the reason is with the best intentions.  Hopefully they will drop once again in time for the wader passage.  Still there was a bonus of another year tick.