29th October - Titchfield Haven NNR, Hampshire

The unseasonably warm weather continued, with the temperature at just before 7:00am, as I got into the car, fifteen degrees, while yesterday afternoon there were four Red Admiral and a Painted Lady on the flowering buddleia in the garden, it was hot, hot hot, or maybe just warm.  The forecast for today was no different with the added anticipation coming from a south easterly wind early on.

I arrived at the sea wall just before sun rise, with Ian joining me as I got out of the car.  There was a fair bit of cloud about and the tide was low, however away to the east there was the deep orange glow as the sun started to rise.

It remained quite gloomy with the significant cloud cover.  There was little movement on the sea, but three Eider were just off shore, two males and a female.

A flock o0f nine then flew in from the east, settling on the sea, these consisted of seven males and just two females.

As I walked along the sea wall to capture the sun breaking through the clouds I could hear the Eider calling, a distinctive cooing, that sounds just like opening my bathroom cabinet!  The males also started bobbing their heads as they moved around the females in an effort to attract their attention.

Yet another stunning Hill Head sunrise.

A light shower required a change of clothes and after that we walked down to the Rainbow Bar to try and get closer to the group of nine Eider.  As is always the case the Eider sense you coming and slowly start to move away, there doesn't seem to be any panic above water, but you wonder what is going on below the water line as they move quickly away.  

Once at a safe distance from us, the Eider returned to matters of the day and cooing calls started up once again and the head bobbing and recommenced.

The Brent were moving from the beach in front of the Brownwich cliffs, coming low over the Rainbow Bar.

A different view of the sunrise across the pebbles of the Rainbow Bar.

Coming back o to the sea wall we were told that there had been a report of a Snow Bunting heading towards the beach, but a search did not find anything.  We were about to leave to walk up the Canal path when two Glossy Ibis flew in and landed in the shallow water just off the beach.

Dropping delicately into the water.

But as we watched the Glossy Ibis arrive another event was unraveling close by.  At first I thought it was just one Little Egret standing on the shore, but a closer look saw that it was standing on another and was aggressively attacking the other.

This at times quite brutal attack went on for a while, the aggressor literally stabbing the back of the other bird that was being held down.  

The attacking bird was clearly an adult, the yellow feet visible, the aggressed bird was not making any visible attempt to fight back, just keeping the head away from the stabbing beak.  Fights will break out as younger birds stray into adult territories, so maybe this is what has happened here.

 

As I photographed I could see the viciousness of the stabs, but amazingly I did not get any photographic evidence of the stabs, maybe a subconscious decision.

The Glossy Ibis were transfixed by the fight, standing in the water watching the spectacle.  We walked down the beach to get closer to the Ibis, but at the same time in the hope that we could break up what was looking now like a fight to the death.  Eventually the aggressor bird flew off followed by the attacked bird which headed off in the opposite direction.  I don't recall checking the feet to see if the hypothesis was correct.

So we turned attention on the two Glossy Ibis.

It was still quite gloomy so it was not possible to appreciate the full extent of the colours in the plumage that give the bird it's name, but they were evident in some angles and light.

The Glossys have been around for at least a couple of mo0nths now although the number seems to have fallen from the original four to three, with one bird appearing to like the reserve scrape and Posbrook Floods and the other two commute between the reserve and Warsash.

After the action from the Little Egrets they never seemed settled and eventually they took off, this one showing some of the petrol colours.

They initially headed towards the rising sun, but eventually turned around and headed West along the coast towards Warsash.

Yesterday afternoon there had been a report of a Yellow-browed Warbler just south of Hammond's Bridge along  the Canal Path, so we were keen to try and see if it was still about.  Yellow-browed Warblers breed in Siberia and are highly migratory and winter in tropical South Asia, but they have now become a regular vagrant to these shores, sometimes turning up in significant numbers along the east coast and spreading inland.

They usually announce their presence by their distinctive call and it was this we were listening for as we walked slowly along the canal path.  We heard Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits and several Chiffchaffs, there were also one or two Blackcaps and good numbers of Siskin passing overhead, but in the time we spent which was around an hour and a half there was no Yellow-browed Warbler "tsoeet", although one or two Coal Tits came close.

The area close to the bridge was probably the busiest, but all we had to show were these Long-tailed Tits.

Walking back it was much of the same, calling Long-tailed Tits.  We dropped into the chalets to see if the Black Redstart reported in the week was about, but again we drew a blank.  Overhead though there was quite a considerable movement of Skylarks, their calls giving them away as they headed out across the water.

We made our way to the cars, the tide was now quite high, even with another four hours to go before high tide was due.  Off shore more Brent Geese passed.  This looks like a family group of two immatures and a hanging on adult.

Walking around to the visitor centre the Kingfisher was disturbed from the bushes by the bridge, of concern was the fact that its "branch" has been broken, apparently by the Grey Heron that has taken a liking to fishing in this spot too.

We made out way around to the only viable hide on the west side (apparently the Spurgin Hide could be open within a week, we will wait to see if this actually happens), the Meon Shore Hide.  The water levels were still low and with the tide still to cover a lot of the beach there were few waders present.  There were though good numbers of Teal with Mallard Gadwall and Wigeon mixed in amongst them.

A Green Sandpiper could be seen at the north end of the scrape, but never came any closer.  The single Glossy Ibis was also feeding at the far end.  With the levels low the water provided some nice reflections.  These Lapwing lending themselves well to a black and white image.

A Sparrowhawk was pointed out sitting on the reserve fence, a female it apparently had been there a while.

A little later it clearly had become bored and flew to the fence to the right of the hide affording mush better views.

How can you not be impressed by that yellow eyed glare?

Then it turned and dropped behind the reeds and we waited for it to come out, but it never did appear.  A little later it turned up on the west side of the scrape, once again on the fence, how it got there no one in the hide knew, nobody saw it after it dropped behind the reeds.

When it did leave the fence it flushed a lot of the Teal, the Lapwing also do not need an invitation to panic and they were up circling around the scrape before settling back once again.

A Grey Heron flew over the scrape with the minimum of effort and headed for Duck Bay.

The Glossy Ibis had remained through out at the north end of the scrape.  At one point it caught a small eel and flew with it to one of the islands where it was easier to dispatch it on dry land.  But it then decided to fly closer to the hide, settling around the small mud islands where the Lapwing had been sitting.

There were a  few breaks in the cloud that allowed some sunshine through, but again not sufficient to highlight the beauty of the plumage in the way I hoped.  Things were a little monochromatic, but with a little enhancement I was able to draw out some of the colour.

Glossy Ibis are naturally a gregarious bird and will normally be found in groups, you have to wonder what happened between the original four birds for one to fly off and another to isolate itself from the remaining two.

It came a little closer into the shallower water which provided better reflections.

Here you can see a gap in the middle of the beak, where the upper beak has flexed.  Modern birds have highly sophisticated jaws, much more flexible than our rigid skull and mandible. Birds can move their whole upper jaw, or parts of it, relative to their cranium, because of regions of thinner bone called bending zones. One of these forms of flexibility is called distal rhynchokinesis, where a section of the upper beak, near the tip, bends relative to the rest of the beak.  It is thought this allows the bird to manipulate their prey better into the mouth.

The Ibis then moved into the bay that is obscured by reeds on the right hand side of the hide.  We waited and hoped that it would make its way around the reeds and appear even closer in front of the hide.  Suddenly it flew out of the bay and made its way back to the deeper water at the north end of the scrape.

There are several islands in front of the hide, but one in particular, island A appears to be a favourite of the Snipe.  I am sure there were probably more but the highest visible count mad  was of 26 Snipe present.  They were either on the top of the island using their wonderful camouflage to blend in with the vegetation or tucked along the edge of the island.

But one or two would venture out into the open.

Some well into the open.

We decided to leave the hide and to take our chances on the east side, however this meant walking past the beach behind the sailing yachts and with the tide very high there was bound to be a high tide roost of waders which could only mean one thing.

Sanderling

There were a few Ringed Plover but once again it was all about the Sanderling.  My challenge though was to try and get some different views to those I had taken previously.  This was not an easy task.  The Sanderling were all grouped together, but I was able to get low down and able to create the background.  Here using the far side of the harbour to give a black background to emphasise the silvery grey plumage

One single bird on the shingle with the black background.

A wider shot.

And using the old stump as a background and focusing on the birds at the back.

A blue grey background, they never appear to stop watching you.

It took Ian to drag me away, which I reluctantly did, walking around the harbour the water was high, but it was still a way off the official high tide.  A Little Grebe was close to the road and while it dived to get away from us it surfaced even closer.

As seems to be the way recently the east side was even quieter.  A quick look in the Suffern Hide produced very little, so we made our way to the Meadow Hide.  There were a few Common Darters about along the boardwalk leading to the hide, from the hide itself it was the usual view.  Around the Frying Pan there were Cormorants and several large gulls while Little Egrets were scattered around some of the open water.  

The usual tactic here is to scan the distant trees and reeds for raptors, we picked up three Buzzards and a hovering Kestrel.  Of more interest was a movement of thrushes, they settled in the willow trees at the back of the Frying Pan and while they were predominantly Fieldfare there were several Redwing too.

More thrushes moved through and in one group we could just make out the white crescent of a Ring Ouzel, but it was extremely distant and the group soon made their way off towards the Canal Path.

Around the hide there was a small group of about six Stonechat, there were definitely two male birds but they kept their distance.  The female types perched along the fence and close by on the reeds and vegetation.

There were several Chiffchaffs flycatching along with the Stonechats but they kept themselves well away from the hide.

With time moving on we called it a day, walking past the high tide roost to the cars the Sanderling were still there but for once I resisted.  An indifferent day that maybe promised something but didn't really deliver, unfortunately Glossy Ibis are becoming a common resident bird now.