The rain eased as I headed through Lyndhurst, my journey would definitely not have been so easy if I had left later, today was the first day of the school holidays, and the traffic would be really bad.
Pulling into the car park there was plenty of cloud about but the sun was breaking through, it was going to be another hot day.
As I walked out to the lagoons I couldn't help but notice the dryness of the ground, the grass too, very yellow, I can't recall having seen it like this before.
I headed for the sea wall, and to the lagoons, various waders have been reported through the week and I was keen to get there early before the tide fell, and there was disturbance from dog walkers. As I walked south along the sea wall to view Butts Lagoon, the sun was lighting up what little water there was on the lagoon. In fact it was mostly mud.
With the tide high there were collections of waders, mostly Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwits, in exposed islands amongst the mud and water.
There were also quite a few Reed Warblers in the reeds in front of me. This one was skulking through the vegetation on the bank below my feet.
As well as those roosting there were also Dunlin feeding frantically on the mud. As I scanned through the Dunlin, I picked out one of the waders I was hoping to find, a Little Stint. Smaller and with out the black belly that almost all the Dunlin had it was easy to pick up. It was though distant which did not help with the photography, but I did manage a few record shots.
There were more people now about on the sea wall and this made the waders a little flighty, and it soon flew off to the back of the lagoon. I was now looking for the other wader reported yesterday, and it didn't take long to find them, again there distinctively different plumage standing out from the many Dunlin. A Curlew Sandpiper's summer breeding plumage, is brick red, and the three I located all showed a considerable amount of this, one in particular.
As I pointed them out to another birder, they flew off, heading in the direction of Fishtail. I decided to follow in the hope of getting a little closer.
The tide was still up as I walked back along the sea wall, and a loan Redshank sat on the bow of an old rowing boat in the middle of the marsh.
I stopped to look around Fishtail Lagoon, and again in front of me in the reeds were Reed Warbler.
And several Reed Buntings.
It has been awhile since I have been here, it was late April when the marsh was shrouded in fog all morning. Today though it was completely different. As I mentioned early everywhere was dry, and no more so than the lagoons them self. The back of fishtail was bone dry, and was populated with Ringed and Little Ringed Plover, and in between them were juvenile Pied Wagtail. Where there was water it was not very deep.
Looking towards Keyhaven, where in April the water extended to the end of the lagoon, now there was dry mud.
There were plenty of Dunlin feeding in the shallow water, and overhead a couple of adult Great Black-backed Gulls cruised the area, looking for an easy meal.
There were four Avocet on a small island, two adults and two juveniles. At first they were sat down on the mud, but then one of the young birds became animated calling to the adult birds, and walking with the bill level with the water
Much to the surprise of the others.
One of the reasons I wanted to be here early was to take the opportunity to photograph in the lovely early morning light, and hopefully the still water would supply some nice reflections. I wasn't disappointed.
A Common Tern flew around the water, silhouetted against the morning sky.
With no sign of the Curlew Sandpipers on Fishtail I walked around to Keyhaven Lagoon. The tide still full, and the marsh looking splendid all the way across to Hurst Point.
The lagoon itself looked incredible, lovely blue water covered in white birds. Initially it looked like the lagoons and lakes you get to visit in the Mediterranean. We haven't had weather like this since 1976, and then if there had been just one of the birds in front of me on the lagoon there would have been a major twitch. Today there were 36 Little Egrets in amongst the Black-headed Gulls.
Today the Little Egret has become a common sight, but this morning they looked spectacular against the blue water and morning sunshine.
There was a group of Black-tailed Godwits with five Knot all still in their red summer breeding plumage.
To the east side of the lagoon there were seven Greenshank, feeding in the shallow water.
I then found the three Curlew Sandpipers, all together but quite a distance away.
Oystercatcher were present too, again there reflections being thrown in the still water.
Scanning the far east side of the lagoon I found at least three , maybe five Little Ringed Plovers. There were at least two juveniles, and one adult was colour ringed with a blue on the left leg, and right was red. They were a long way off, so only a record of one.
Back to the lagoon, and the Curlew Sandpipers had moved a little closer.
At the back of the lagoon were two more Avocets, and Shelduck feeding. All that was missing from the Mediterranean scene was a Black-winged Stilt, now that would have been nice.
I decided to walk back to Fishtail, with the conditions as they were anything could turn up today. As I left Keyhaven a Marbled White flew along the sea wall and settled on a flower head to warm up in the morning sunshine, it wasn't yet 7.30!
Back on Fishtail the reflections were still good.
The Great Black-backed Gulls were still about, and it became clear what they were looking for. We watched as one caught an eel, and proceeded to try and swallow it as it wriggled and twisted itself around the gull's bill. It managed to eat it in the end by decapitating the head. They would sit by the side of the water watching for movement in the water, or a Cormorant or Black-headed Gull catching one.
I walked on towards Butts Lagoon. Off shore was an immature male Eider.
And a family of Mute Swans that had followed me from Keyhaven where they had come close to me looking for food probably.
The waders were still on Butts, but there was no sign of the Little Stints, there were now two about. From here I moved on to the Jetty Lagoon where there was an adult Mediterranean Gull on the mud with Black-headed Gulls
Past the Jetty and on to Pennington, where a dog was allowed to run through the middle of the water scattering all the birds including three Greenshank, and a pair of Avocet, that then flew out over the sea.
I had seen three Ravens earlier, probably a family party, but as I walked towards Oxey Marsh I heard the familiar call and looked up to see two fly over.
Then followed by another three, the family consisted of three youngsters.
I couldn't face walking all the way to Normandy, so cut back to Butts Lagoon to go through the waders once again to try and find the two Little Stints. Dunlin were feeding close in.
While at the back of the lagoon there was a collection of Dunlin, Knot and Black-tailed Godwits.
I couldn't find the Little Stints, so walked around to the west side and had them pointed out to me feeding in the far south east corner. It would have been impossible to see them from where I had been, and I was lucky to have the views I had early this morning.
Stopping at Fishtail, I located the Yellow Wagtail that had been reported, but entered into a debate with some other birds. Sideways on the bird looked like a Yellow Wagtail, but when it came head on it had a black bib, which was different and could point to Grey Wagtail. I managed to get some pictures later that show this. Sideways on.
And then head on with the black bib.
Apparently it had been heard to call earlier, and this was conclusively a Yellow Wagtail, but was thought to be a very young juvenile. The date was very early for Yellow Wagtail on migration
Walking on a large flock of Dunlin flew into Fishtail.
It was then back to the vigorous feeding, drilling the beaks into the mud. One individual seemed to be sneezing due to mud in the nostrils.
I wanted one more look at Keyhaven in the hope of that Stilt. It wasn't to be but the Curlew Sandpipers were showing very well.
I managed to isolate the individual with the best plumage.
The Greenshank were still present and there numbers had increased to eight.
But once again it was back to the Little Egrets.
I decided it was time to make my way back for some lunch, as I walked past Fishtail a Common Sandpiper was feeding on the dry mud, surprisingly my first for the year.
In Butts Bay a Little Tern fished and a Common Tern sat on one of the old exposed lobster pots.
As I headed back to the car park I took another look at the very dry Fishtail Lagoon. If it stays like this there may very well be some good waders about this autumn.
After lunch I decided to try my luck with some butterflies. I had missed some of this year's "blues" so was wanting to find the Chalkhill Blues that were emerging, and hopefully Silver-spotted Skipper. Taking into account the holiday traffic I decided on visiting Old Winchester Hill. It meant I could avoid the M3 and also it would be close to home.
As I headed towards the fort, from the car park I passed many Six Spot Burnets on the scabious flowers.
A little further on a Brimstone flew past me, while in the grass were many Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers.
I headed around to the fort, and then took the path down into the lower fields. At first I thought the grass was too long, but soon there were Chalkhill Blues everywhere but they were not stopping.
They were duelling and just buzzing around. Then one picked an argument with a Silver Y Moth, and clearly was intent on ramming home the message.
It appeared to hold on to the moth, tumbling it down into the grass.
Every so often the moth would break away but the butterfly would catch it once again and force it back into the grass.
This went on for about five minutes until the moth managed to get away when the butterfly was distracted by another Chalkhill Blue.
Was this about territory or the desperate need to mate at any cost?
While the Chalkhills were not stopping I did manage to find a Brown Argus.
And a Small Heath
The search for Silver \spotted Skipper was proving to be fruitless, the only skipper I managed to find being a rather worn Small Skipper.
I then found a patch of plants that seemed to finally slow down the Chalkhill Blues and I was able to photograph them settled.
And a lovely Brown Argus
I decided that maybe it was just a little too early here for the skipper so decided as it was now very hot to call it a day. As I reached the old moat around the fort I found a Chalkhill Blue settled and with wings open.
And alongside it a Common Blue for comparison.
As I walked back to the car, I thought about the morning. With waders coming through is Autumn now here? Will this weather turn up something really good here in Hampshire. We can but wait and see
