23rd July - Keyhaven - Lymington Reserve and Pig Bush New Forest, Hampshire

Due to holidays it had been a while since Ian and I had met up, this weekend our many holidays were not conflicting and a rarity on Normandy Marsh had us meeting in the car park at Lower Pennington Lane just after six am.  As I made my way from home there had been a mist hanging in the valleys and sheltered spots of the fields, the sky was clear and the sun was just rising, it was going to be another splendid day.  Getting out of the car there was a mist over the, very dry, Pennington Marsh where cattle were grazing at the back.

 

A combination of the rising sun the mist and the sun baked grasses produces a sepia affect in the photographs.

Swifts were swooping over the car park and then out over Efford Lake, I haven't seen that many Swifts this year let alone have the opportunity to photograph them, so just before we set off I took the opportunity to try and catch the acceptable image.  I was pleased with these two.

I am assuming the bulging throat is where they are holding insects caught, or is it where they have taken on air as the fly about with their mouths open?  Not sure, but it takes on the appearance of a lunge feeding baleen whale.

The hedgerow along the west side of the Old Tip was busy with small birds.  Several Whitethroat could be seen moving quickly through the bramble.  This one pausing to take the morning sunshine.

As were these House Sparrows.

We were heading east to Normandy Marsh for the Lesser Yellowlegs that had been present for over a week, but the light and water conditions on Fishlake were just perfect and of course there were plenty of Avocet to take advantage of.

This adult was standing watch over a couple of very young birds that were feeding along the edge of the water. The young of Avocet are known as precocial, in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normally nidifugous, meaning that they leave the nest shortly after birth or hatching.  The adult's role is to stand guard and chase off any potential danger.

The shallow water of Fishtail Lagoon provided the perfect conditions for some wonderful Avocet reflections.

The other adult was taking a rest.

Something obviously concerned the guarding adult and it flew off to chase something, we couldn't see what.

back again on guard.

We counted 40m Avocet on the lagoon, this pair feeding up close to the reeds for another alternative reflection shot.

Other waders present were Redshank and couple of Dunlin.  A single Grey Heron stood ceremonially in the shallow water.

Keen now to move on to Normandy we set off around the sea wall.  The Tide was up and the water almost as still as that on the shallow lagoons.

At the Jetty Lagoon there was a large number of Little Egrets.  To the east side of the lagoon the reeds would cast a dark shadow on the water creating a black background to capture the brilliant white of the egrets.

This gives a sense of the calm conditions out in the Solent, looking towards Hurst Castle.  The top of the cliffs on the Isle of Wight were a golden brown.

A Great Crested Grebe was out on the water.

A little further along there was one a little closer to the shore.

Rounding the bend at Oxey Marsh a Redshank sat on one of the little islands in the lagoon.

Walking past Eight Acre Pond, looking south Oxey Lake was looking very calm, with blue ev everywhere.

As we approached Normandy Lagoon we could see a collection of birders on the sea wall, clearly they were watching the Lesser Yellowlegs so the pressure relaxed a little.  There was though, one problem, the sun.  Watching from the west side of the lagoon at this time of day was going to be a challenge.

Sure enough the Lesser Yellowlegs was feeding on the island closest to the west side of the lagoon.  It liked the bricks around the island which were dark and this coupled with the sunlight made it very difficult to focus on the bird.

By moving a little bit it was possible to get some better light.

There have been 15 records of Lesser Yellowlegs in Hampshire, the first being found in 1953.  The last one I managed to see in Hampshire was the long staying bird during the 2013/14 winter at Lepe.

There was some confusion over the identification of this bird when it was first found, initially identified as a Lesser Yellowlegs it was then announced to be a Greater Yellowlegs, a much rarer find with only two county records, but then subsequently re-identified as the relatively commoner Lesser.

The Lesser Yellowlegs is a medium-sized shorebird with bright yellow legs. Plumage is essentially identical to Greater Yellowlegs: grey upperparts with white speckling, streaky neck, and white belly. Proportions are most important for identification. Lesser is smaller overall with shorter, narrower, straighter bill, shorter neck, more rounded head, and smaller chest.

We moved around to the south side of the lagoon, whilst the bird was a little further away the light was much easier to work with.

The Lesser Yellowlegs forages actively on mudflats and in shallow pools and marshes, habitats ranging from tidal flats to sewage ponds to flooded fields often in loose mixed flocks with other waders.

They migrate to the Gulf coast of the United States, the Caribbean, and south to South America from breeding grounds in the north of the American continent. This species is a regular vagrant to western Europe; in Great Britain about five birds arrive each year, mostly between August and October, with the occasional individual overwintering.

With the Lesser Yellowlegs seemingly going to roost we decided to walk a little further along the sea wall to see what else was about.

Like the swifts earlier in the car park, another bird I have struggled to catch up with this year was the Little Tern.  The first I had seen were some distant birds at Church Norton last weekend.  There were a few on the lagoon here and would move between the islands out to sea.

Feeding close in was a single Bar-tailed Godwit, shorter legged than its cousin the Black-tailed, it also has a much paler non-breeding plumage.

There was a collection of waders feeding close to the shore of the lagoon, here some summer plumaged Dunlin, a Redshank, Turnstone and Black-tailed Godwit.

A Ringed Plover stood motionless on the shore as if on guard

Then a justification for its alertness a small chick, another precocial species.

An Avocet flew in, chased the Bar-tailed Godwit away and settled on the shore, so settled one leg would do.

On the bank a Gatekeeper provided my first photograph of the butterfly this year.

Walking back to the west side the Lesser Yellowlegs had woken up and was feeding once more along the concrete bricks.  The light was now a little better.

Along the fence there was a family of Stonechats.

Leaving Normandy the light and conditions on the sea were much different, gone was the soft look to the light, replaced with a harsher edge, the water on the Eight Acre Pond though was picking out the reflection of the surrounding trees.  These Little Grebe were picked out within the reflections.

There were plenty of Ragwort and thistles flowering along the sea wall and Gatekeepers could be seen in many places.

We had passed many dog walkers through the morning, some with dogs under control and some off the lead, some would venture into the sea, while others would walk pleasantly alongside their owners.  As we approached the large lagoon in the middle of Oxey Marsh there was a group of around twelve Canada Geese, we were scanning the shore line as a Common Sandpiper had flown past us earlier heading towards the lagoon.  All of a sudden a small white, what could be described as a "terrier" type dog, ran down the bank and into the water and headed through the shallow water towards the group of geese.

The Canada Geese all flew off, but one was left and the dog went after it.  It was flapping to get away and you could see it hardly had any primaries and was able to get away.  A combination of flapping and paddling kept it a head of the dog for awhile, 

But in the end the dog caught up with it and grabbed it by the neck.  The Goose then went completely still and the dog kept grabbing at it, shaking the body.  We were convinced it had killed the goose.

By this time we had managed to get the attention of the owner who was a way off and he came, asked what to do as the dog was not responding to the calls he was making, so we told him to go in and get the dog, which is what he did.

As you can see despite the biting from the dog the goose was in fact playing dead and eventually makes a getaway.

It wasn't nice to watch but reinforces the fact that dogs can do significant damage. It was just a Canada Goose you might say, but it could have easily been any other bird, or even the cattle and livestock that roam the reserve.  Maybe the reserve needs to insist that dogs are on a lead and not just expected to be under control.

We moved on towards Pennington Lagoon where a Little Egret was fishing in the still water.

A quick shake of the body shows off those lovely white plumes.

We managed to catch up with the Common Sandpiper, it had continued across to Pennington Lagoon and was feeding along the far side of the lagoon.  It would continue to fly ahead of us until it finally decided to settle and walk along the water's edge.  A first for the year

A surprise find was this Brown Argus at the top of the sea wall.

Butts Lagoon had a good collection of waders, with at least 40 Dunlin and two groups of Black-tailed Godwits.

As we approached the corner that turns into Butts Bay, there were a few people looking down into the reeds.  As we got there we were told there was a Water Rail at the edge of the reeds, and there was!

A view across Butts Lagoon as we headed back to the car park for a drink

From the car park we headed back along the Fishlake side of the Old Tip.  This Small Tortoiseshell looks as if it has just emerged a really wonderful specimen.

The conditions on Fishlake had changed, gone was the mirror still water conditions replaced with ripples.  The Avocet were still there, but some were harder to spot than others.  These two juveniles blending in so well with their surroundings on the island.

A few more butterflies were seen along the path, this Common Blue.

While this small Skipper finally gave itself up as an Essex Skipper.

To confirm the identity here you can see the black clubs on the antennae

Keyhaven Lagoon was covered with Gulls and Little Egrets, although they all went up as there were two people walking about at the back of the lagoon.  Ir wasn't clear though if they were meant to be there or not.

We passed the usual Peregrine on the usual post, and there was a lot of activity with the terns on the spit.  We could see Little, Sandwich and Common, but there was no sign of any Black Tern that another birder said they had seen earlier.

As we walked toward the Keyhaven car park and the Pans a male Marsh Harrier came over the reeds spreading the Black-tailed Godwits.  It was heading towards us before dropping out of sight into the reeds.

It reappeared over the tip as we walked along the Ancient Highway, there were also quite a few Sand Martins moving west.  It was no quite hot out of a fresh breeze and we made our way to the car park for lunch and to consider what to do next.

The decision was to head inland to the Forest, missing Lyndhurst by heading out towards Beaulieu.  We stopped of at Pig Bush, we were hoping for two butterflies, with one more guaranteed than the other.  We walked through the wood by the car park where there were calling Spotted Flycatcher but we could not see them.  From there we headed out and up on to the heath.

It didn't take long to find the expected butterfly, a Grayling.

Cryptic colouring provides the Grayling with excellent camouflage, making it difficult to see when at rest on bare ground, tree trunks, or stones. The wings are kept closed when not in flight and the forewings are usually tucked behind the hind wings, concealing the eyespots and making the butterfly appear smaller.   The Grayling exposes the eyespots on its wings when it believes to have been detected by a predator, but generally keeps them hidden to avoid being seen in flight this is a distinctive, large butterfly with a looping and gliding flight, during which the paler bands on the upper wings are visible.

As we headed down from Furzey Ridge Ipicked up what at first I thought was a Raven, but then it was clear it wasn't, there were similarities to a Buzzard by the size of the wings but the shape was all wrong, a long tail.  When Ian picked it up he called harrier.  It was twisting and turning as it headed into the wind.  These are Ian's photographs not mine!

Circulating these on Facebook the consensus is that it is a Honey Buzzard, question is can we claim it for a year tick?

We lost the raptor over the trees and so walked on down to the copse close to the railway line.  We passed through a boggy area with some open water.  In the boggy part there was flowering cotton grass.  There were several dragonflies about, but all of the same species, Keeled Skimmer.  The New Forest is one of the prime locations for this species.

There was plenty of bird activity in the trees with a juvenile Redstart showing well.

A Treecreeper also showed very well.

There was no sign though of the hoped for Silver-studded Blue, it was a little late now for them and we hoped maybe there might be a few stragglers, but no there was nothing.  As a result we decided to make a short stop into Shatterford to see if there were any there.  We saw more Grayling but no blue butterflies.  By now the weather was changing with a good covering of cloud shutting out the sunshine we had enjoyed earlier in the day, conditions not conducive for the Blues.

So it had been a good day, great to get back to some birding with a few good sightings and some great light early on.