We are now in Lockdown 2.0, but the rules are a little more relaxed than those we experienced back in late March. We can meet with one person from another household for recreation and so it was that I met up with Ian at Farlington Marshes just before dawn. We had said last week we would return if the weather behaved, to attempt once again to catch up with a Short-eared Owl. We had the brief view a couple of weeks previously but no chance to photograph it. Through the weeks the weather had been sunny and dry with very little wind and two birds had been reported. This morning it was slightly cloudy with a little mist, but importantly there was very little wind.
Heading from the car park the sun was just emerging above the horizon in the east sending a pinkish red glow up into the sky and across the still waters of the Lake. The tide was out and Brent Geese could be heard out on the mud and overhead as they moved to the marsh.
We stopped close to the Lake to watch the sun rise and the Geese flying across the sky.
Duck were spread out across the water that appeared golden in the early morning light.
Moving closer we could see that the majority of the duck were Pintail, and mostly drakes. Other ducks present were Wigeon, Mallard, Teal and a few Gadwall. The light was now wonderful, rich golden and turning the still water of the lake a golden orange.
Several of the Pintail then flew off flying low at first over the golden water to get lift.
Then circling around over the reeds, then turning to the west out over the harbour.
Pintail are my favourite duck, and at this time of year they are superb with their chocolate brown head and neck, the distinctive white stripe and grey and back body feathers. In flight they show of the orange and brown wing stripe, beautiful.
The remaining Pintail roosted in the still water, bobbing and turning as they rested, never really asleep but turning slowly to keep an eye for any possible danger. Here the silhouette of the resting duck is unmistakably that of a Pintail, with the pointed tail at the rear.
Another take with some reed reflection included to break up the colour of the water.
The elegance of the ducks and the reflections in the water were wonderful.
Farlington is great place to photograph the duck in flight as they move to and from the Lake to the open water in the harbour. I have taken many of Pintail in flight and I took lots today and will probably continue to do so in the future.
We walked a little further along the wall, in the channel on the other side of the sea wall a Curlew fed along the edge of the water.
At the view point there were closer views of the Pintail remaining on the lake. The water here was very still and still tinged with a orange hue from the rising sun.
Some beautiful still reflections
The morning was truly down to the beauty of the light and morning weather plus the stunning Pintail drakes.
The Pintail feeds by dabbling and upending in shallow water
for plant food mainly in the evening or at night, and therefore spends much of
the day resting. Its long neck enables it to take food items from the
bottom of water bodies up to 30 cm (12 in) deep, which are beyond the
reach of other dabbling ducks like the mallard.
The winter diet is mainly plant material including seeds
and rhizomes of aquatic plants, but the Pintail sometimes feeds on
roots, grain and other seeds in fields, though less frequently than other Anas ducks.
The drakes would raise and bob their heads to each other. It is also possible to know when they are about to fly as they raise their heads and extend their necks as if to look out for danger.
Or were they drinking?
It was a wonderful scene.
And my favourite of the day: I love the beautiful curve of the white neck stripe. Another of those photographs that look like a watercolour.
I then thought it would be a good idea to get down the side of the sea wall and try and get at water level with them, but as always the duck were not having it and slowly but assuredly paddled away from the still water and out into the open water.
We decided to walk on, the Curlew had now been replaced by a single Dunlin.
We walked the sea wall scanning the marshes in hope of the Short-eared Owl appearing, but other than Brent and Canada Geese there was little about. There was one Barnacle goose with the farmyard white goose.
We walked around Point Field, then walked through from the east side after seeing Snipe fly up. We couldn't locate the snipe, but did come across this Rabbit which allowed us to approach very closely.
There were no owls in Point Field, but there was the obligatory Kestrel hunting.
There seemed to be Stonechat everywhere, closely followed by good numbers of Linnet.
At The Deeps the Shoveler were lit up by the morning sunshine.
After stopping for an interesting conversation with one of the wildfowlers, that really seemed to want to talk with us, in which the conversation was interrupted by a Kingfisher that flew across the marsh and over towards the reeds at the back of the information hut. we made our way to the information hut where Reed Bunting were behaving like Bearded Tits.
As suspected a couple of Black-tailed Godwits fed close to the path.
While at the back of the hut a Grey Heron stalked in the pond.
We walked across the field towards the west sea wall. I noticed a bird fly into a hawthorn bush and as I got closer could see it was a Song Thrush, normally they will just fly off, but this one was quite happy to let us get closer and didn't seem bothered by us at all.
After a cup of tea we moved on, next stop the Oyster Beds at West Hayling. The car parks were all full and we ended up parking near the Langstone Quays hotel. We walked to the edge of the bridge, a Great-crested Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser were close to the bridge but nothing else.
Walking the Billy path a Little Egret flew into one of the streams in the harbour close to the path.
With the tide still very low there was very little around the Oyster Beds, Curlew and Oystercatcher could be seen on the mud, and out on the water were good numbers of Great-crested Grebes and Red-breasted Mergansers. Of concern were two boats trawling for shellfish by throwing baskets off the stern and then trawling them along the harbour bottom, they would move up and down the Bridge Lake.
We were here to try and find the reported Black-necked Grebes, we eventually found them south of South Binness island, probably pushed there by the trawling activities. The views were always distant but they were unmistakable. There were eight birds in total and they were very active, all diving and surfacing together.
We sat on the rocks just off the Oyster Beds and waited to see if with the tide rising the grebes moved. Nothing much was going on, a Kingfisher was fishing along one of the many streams in the mud, it was seen distantly hovering over the water. A couple of Sandwich Terns flew around the bay to the south of us, then one flew past quite close.
It was noon and the sun was quite warm, just to prove the point a butterfly flew past us low over the rocks heading towards the shore, I picked it up with the binoculars, a Clouded Yellow, the latest I have ever seen one.
One of the Great-crested Grebes, an immature bird, came close to us along the shore.
We decided it was time for lunch so set off back to the car. The only birds in the lagoon were three Little Grebes and a Herring Gull, but as we walked away a Common Gull appeared. I think the Common Gull is a good looking gull, it isn't as aggressive looking as the Herring Gull and even it's close cousin the North American Ring-billed Gull.
After lunch it was back to Farlington and a completely different place to that we left, there were cars and people everywhere, the weather plus lockdown 2.0 bringing everyone out. At times looking along the sea wall it looked like Southsea Promenade!
We finally managed to park and decided to walk along the west wall, the tide was rising and there would be waders and duck flying into the Lake. We reached the view point and scanned the reeds at the back of the Lake. Snipe could be seen in amongst the reed stems, but all were Common Snipe, there was no sign of any bobbing. On either sides of the lake were wader roosts. To the north Redshank dominated with twenty nine Avocet present, while on the south side it was mostly Black-tailed Godwits and Dunlin in amongst the reeds stems like to Snipe
Out on the marsh were many geese, Canada and Brent, a large group of Shelduck and also Wigeon which were only really seen when they flew around.
Some coming closer over the lake.
We were just about to walk on when all the waders and duck at the south end of the Lake went up. I looked across the reeds and saw a large raptor flying with an easy relaxed wing beat that I thought was a Marsh Harrier. Ian then cried out "Short-eared Owl" and I looked out across the marsh frantically trying to see it. It was then I realised that the owl was in fact my Marsh Harrier and it was coming straight at us.
It was looking around and drifting towards us, I couldn't believe it we were going to get ta grandstand view.
t then turned as if unsure if it should pass over us, I was following it with the camera, shooting away hopping that the settings were right. It turned and headed south.
I think this has to be the best photograph of a Short-eared Owl I have ever taken.
With the fast frame per second speed of my shutter there are normally many images that I have to delete, but in this case almost everyone was good. Apologies for the indulgence here b=ut both Ian and I have waited such a long time for an experience and opportunity like this
It passed in front of us before turning west once again to pass the sea wall a little to the south of us.
The light was changing, the owl now going past us with the sun behind it. I changed the exposure with my finger without looking and hoped it was enough, I continued to track the owl frame by frame as it continued past us.
It was only when processing the images that I noticed the detail in the trailinge edge of the secondaries. All owls are known for the quietness of their flight and this is owed to their specialised feathers. When air rushes over an ordinary wing, it typically creates a “gushing” noise as large areas of air turbulence build up. But the owl has a few ways to alter this turbulence and reduce its noise. First, the leading edge of the owl’s wing has feathers covered in small structures that project out from the wing. These serrations break up the flowing air into smaller flows that are more stable along the wing. These smaller airflows then roll along the owl’s wing toward the trailing edge, which is comprised of a flexible fringe. This fringe breaks up the air further as it flows off the trailing edge, resulting in a large reduction in aerodynamic noise. You can see these fringes in the trailing secondary feathers
The owl continued to cross the wall and head towards the open water.
Then it turned away from and gained height as it flew across the water towards the M27. The camera was replaced with the binoculars and we followed it as it continued to gain height, crossed the motorway and became a small spec as it headed up and probably over Portsdown Hill.
No longer able to see it we turned to each other with big grins on our face. It has been a long while since both of us have had the opportunity to see one so close and in wonderful light. They have either failed to turn up or the light was too dark. The photos I have taken were OK, but you always wanted more. One or two of these are just wonderful.
It would appear that maybe this was a different bird to those that have been present, according to Jason Crook this one was much darker so there wass still the chance we could catch up with the two reported in the week at Point Field
After checking the images on the back of the camera and congratulating each other we decided we needed more so walked on towards Point Field, the pressure was off but we still would like some more.
A drake Teal looked splendid in the sunshine.
Stonechat were along the path showing well in the sunshine on the bushes and fences.
We reached the bench at Point Field just after 15:00 and sat down. we have become very familiar with the grass and bushes in the field and we started long and hard willing something to appear. As we stared the wader roosts were wheeling and turning, flashing silver and grey in the sunshine over the islands and open water of Langstone harbour.
We stuck at it for about 45 minutes, the sun wass going as cloud built up, but it was the movement of people through the field that made us decide it wasn't going to happen. People were trailing through almost constantly and the disturbance wasn't going to be a help at all.
Walling back there was a large roost of Knot, Dunlin and Grey Plover close to the sea wall. They were very restless as they fought each other for ground to be able to settle on.
Here you can see the battle going on for space.
We had been out since before sun rise, the weather was wonderful all day and we had the beauty of the Pintail in wonderful light in the morning and then the incredible feeling that always accompanies a good owl sighting. Both of us had huge grins on our faces as we walked back to the car and the sun slowly set over Portsmouth.
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