After both the success of seeing the Curlew Sandpiper and the failure to find the Little Stint I was meeting Ian at Farlington, I needed the stints for the year and Ian the Curlew Sandpiper. The forecast was for a hot day and we arrived in sunshine and then set off along the west side of the marsh to check the Lake.
The tide was high and all the waders were packed away in the north east corner, but with the sun low viewing was not easy.
We couldn't find any small waders amongst the Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank. There were Avocets and a couple of Greenshank, but no Dunlin and the wanted Curlew Sandpiper.
We decided to cross the field and walk alongside the Stream. There was nothing here of interest so we followed the track out in the direction of the east side. The Starling flocks were gathering on the path and moving between the puddles and the fences alongside the track.
At the Deeps it was a familiar scene no stints but Common Sandpipers and Little Ringed Plovers. There were two Common Sandpipers feeding amongst the mud.
Moving around to be able to scan all the nooks and crannies of the pools we came across the Little Ringed Plover quite close in.
A juvenile bird and one of two present.
My favourite of the collection.
Clearly the Stints had gone, so we decided to walk on. On reaching Point Field we could hear what could only be described as wailing out in the harbour. A quick scan of the water and we found the source, a group of Harbour or Common Seals.
The Harbour Seal is the smallest of the seals found in the United Kingdom, the other being the Grey Seal. They can be told apart by the Harbour Seals rounded head and overall size, the Grey Seal has a sloping forehead and long snout.
Other seals appeared to the left of the main bunch.
In total we counted eleven seals.
A final close up of the main bunch.
The wailing continued as we walked on, back to the Lake. Another scan through the waders and we still couldn't find the Curlew Sandpiper, so after a while we decided it wasn't there. From Farlington we drove to Warsash, where hopefully we could catch up with Whinchat.
We checked the trees along Workman's Lane for the Little Owl without any luck, then walked along the path through the TLC field. Whitethroat and Linnets were active in the bushes and a Peregrine flew over heading out towards Southampton Water.
A scan across the fields and fences found a Wheatear sitting on the corner of a fence around the horse paddocks.
From here we walked along the beach towards the scrape and meander pools where there were a few Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets, but no sign of the reported Whinchat in the gorse. We walked on in hope of finding the Yellow-legged Gull, again no luck, the highlight a Greenshank.
Heading back along Workman's Lane again no sign of the Little Owl, the highlight several Holly Blues.
From Warsash drove to Titchfield Haven, a chance to check the terns on the beach. Scanning through the terns both Ian and I thought we had got on a Roseate, but as we tried to confirm to Paddle Boarders decided to walk as close as they could to the Roost and this happened.
There is a pattern emerging here!
So we decided to try the reserve, starting in the Meon Shore Hide. The water levels were low and there was a good amount of mud, on the left hand side there were three Common Sandpipers and another on the far bank. However everything was away from the hide, including the terns.
It was nice though to see up to five Snipe out in the open.
We decided to try the East side, but the terns had returned to the beach so we tried our luck again. It was all Common Terns except for this one Sandwich Tern.
A report of Cattle Egret on the frying Pan had us set off for the East side. On entering the reserve we were told of a Willow Emerald Damselfly at the Walkway Pond. On reaching the pond the Damselfly was pointed out to us.
This a Damselfly that has only recently started to colonise the UK. The first report was in East Sussex in 1979, and since then has spread as far north in the UK as Cambridgeshire.
Both sexes are mainly metallic green, but larger and darker than other emerald damselflies.
They are easily overlooked due to an association with water side trees where they may be seen hanging with their wings spread out wide.
The thorax has thin yellow shoulder straps, the lower border of the metallic green on the thorax is irregular and forms a darker spur.
The abdomen is long and and has a projection in the male while the female has the ovipositer. This is a male.
They like standing and slow flowing water, with over hanging trees.
Apparently this is only the third record for the reserve.
We left the pond and walked on the the Knight's Bank Hide. There had been a report of Brown Hairstreak a few days earlier, but we could only find this Brimstone.
The Cattle Egret were present with the Highland Cows in the Frying Pan. Unfortunately they were very distant and there was an annoying heat haze, this was the best I could do.
Coming out of the reserve there was a Common Darter showing nicely.
An indifferent day, but it was nice to catch up with the Willow Emerald Damselfly, a lifer for me.
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