9th November - Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

Another misty and in places foggy morning at home, but as I drove south it started to lift and as I turned on to Cliff road at Hill Head it was clear with a quite brisk north easterly wind, the weather was changing.

The tide was rising and the sea was a little more unsettled than it has been over the last few days.  I walked too the cabin to check in and the newly installed feeders had attracted a Coal Tit, not a bird that is easily seen around this area, the Scots Pine tree must have been an attraction.  Along with the Blue and Great Tits there was a Chiffchaff feeding in the Tamarisks and showing well as it chased the tits away.

A female Marsh Harrier was over the reed bed and a Grey Heron was using the perch that was positioned to attract the Kingfishers!

Walking around to the west side, there were five Little Egret on the mud below the reeds.  The egrets seem to have taken up resting and feeding here and it was a surprise to see five in this spot together

Even with the tide still a couple of hours away from high tide it was high and much of the beach was covered.  There was a good number of Sanderling in the roost on the Sailing Club spit, I counted 112.  Here a sample of them.

Walking around to the west side a single duck flew toward me.  I thought it might have been a Pintail and moved to take the photograph, but it turned out to be a male Pochard.  These were once a regular feature on the river but today only a few singles appear at this time of year.

The north east wind was blowing in through the hide windows and it was cold, despite the direction of the wind there were quite a few birds close to the hide.

A Redshank flew on to Snipe Island.

One Snipe was feeding amongst the reeds quite close on the left hand side of the hide.

The Lapwing were rather jumpy with a Marsh Harrier around and when they would take off they would take the Black-tailed Godwits with them.  They would circle around looking impressive against the grey sky.

One of the flock.

I decided to walk up to the Spurgin hide to look for the Water Pipit that had been reported, but it had flown off just before I arrived and after almost an hour and a half wait it hadn't returned.  The only birds of interest from the hide were a couple of distant Marsh Harriers.  As a result I walked back to the Pumfrett hide to see if it was there.  It wasn't, the only bird close to the hide was a Grey Wagtail that hid in the grass and again a Marsh Harrier that attempted to take some Teal.

And then for some reason decided to pick a fight with a Grey Heron.

So it was back to the Meon Shore hide for lunch and it turned out to be quite entertaining.

Drake Teal close in.

And a Black-tailed Godwit preening, here rubbing the oil gland at the base of the tail with it's neck and bill.

When I arrived a flock of Golden Plover flew up when the Lapwing flushed, they headed out towards the sea, but fortunately returned.  Some lovely autumnal sunshine added to the scene.

It looked like a flock of around twenty birds but I wasn't able to count them as they dropped on to the far island amongst Lapwing and out of sight.

It wasn't long before they were up again and this time flying closer to the hide and I was able to isolate a few as they flew past.

And a view of the under wing.

Three birds together here, not two heads and six wings!

Finally as they flew higher I was able to capture the whole flock, a total of twenty two birds.

The female Marsh Harrier continued to hunt at the back of the scrape and also coming down the right hand side over the reeds and for once coming close.

There was some discussion as to whether this was an immature bird,. it certainly wasn't that effective at hunting.

There has been a partially leucistic Carrion Crow around the reserve for sometime.  Whether it has been the same bird or offspring is not clear.  It does look quite smart as it swooped on to the island flushing the Lapwing.

With the Lapwing continually taking to the air the duck were also jumpy, the Shoveler heading off the scrape to the road side bay of the river.  Here a definite female and possibly two males still in eclipse.

Two males.

And a nice close fly past by a drake.

Three Pintail circled the scrape after joining the Lapwing panic.

The Black-tailed Godwit were feeding close to the hide, and they were feeding deep into the mud.  The head and bill covered in mud.

A Snipe appeared just below the hide on the bank of the scrape.

While another flew from the reeds to Snipe Island.

My time was up and as I walked back to the car I stopped for this Little Egret standing in the shallow water by the reeds enjoying the sunshine.

Another one of those days where something happens that makes it.  Today it was the Golden Plover, lovely to see them in the autumnal sunshine and close up too.

7th November - Bearded Tit - Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

Bearded Tits are one of several birds that are sought after by photographers, the sort of bird you probably have many images of, but always want more.  I have referred to todays sightings in the previous post, but due to the number of images I took, I felt it only right that they had their own post like some of the other special birds I have seen and photographed this year.

It all started with some movement in the reeds seen first by Ian, then brief views of the female until the male popped out, the male with his blue grey head and drooping Mexican moustache, not anything like a beard!

The female flew first flying across to the left hand side of the hide, the male followed but stopped in the clump of reeds just centrally in front of the hide.  Unfortunately it never showed well here and was soon off to join the female in the reeds on the left hand side.

They stayed out of sight for a while until the familiar 'pings' were heard and the female appeared showing off her acrobatic skills.

Lacking the colour and the black moustache of the male she is often overlooked, but she has the same abilities in the reeds and can be just as impressive.

She ducked back into the reeds and it was only a matter of time before the male appeared.  The arrival was heralded by the movement of the reeds until the head appeared.

Then the split legs shots as the Bearded Tit balance on two reed stems.

Then going back to some more conventional stem perching.

The Bearded Tit is cinnamon-brown with a long, brown tail. It has the blue-grey head with a distinctive black 'moustache' (rather than a beard) and a yellow bill and eyes. As we have seen the females are less colourful than males, and do not have the moustache.

The Bearded Tit is mainly found in large reedbeds where it feeds on insects during the summer and breeding season and reed seeds in the winter. It builds its nest low down among the reeds, often on piles of dead reed stems. Bearded tits can be heard calling with a nasal 'ting' or 'ping' sound as they fly about the reeds which can be heard from some distance across the reeds.

The male then came out of the reeds and moved up the stems into the morning sunshine.

The Bearded Tit is also known as 'Bearded Reedling' or 'Bearded Parrotbill'. In fact, it is not actually a tit or parrotbill, but today it is known to lack close relatives and it is the only species in the family Panuridae. 

Bearded Tits are strongly sexually dimorphic and form life-long pairs. They are highly productive and can breed several times in a season. 

The drooping moustache reminds me of several people, the actor and comedian Jimmy Edwards sported an impressive moustache, and a good friend and football manager of mine, now sadly departed Nigel Cassidy who used to play for Oxford United in the seventies.

It dropped down into the reeds and we watched the female fly across in front of us once again.  The male eventually appeared in the reeds, gave a short showing before flying across to join her and disappearing out of sight once more.

A great showing and lot more images to ad to those I already have of this charismatic bird.