21st August - Farlington Marshes, Hampshire

With a mid afternoon high tide at Farlington I thought it was worth a visit to check the wader roost, It was a warm and sunny afternoon with a fresh breeze coming off the water, something you would expect with a rising tide.

From the car park I made my way along the sea wall to the Lake.  The tide was on the move and the channels out in the harbour were full, but there was plenty of mud around.  Needless to say there was already an established roost at the Lake dominated by Redshank and Black-tailed Godwit.  There was also a few Dunlin feeding at the water edge amongst the larger waders and I found a Curlew Sandpiper, but as soon as I got on it the small group of waders it was with were spooked and it flew off out in the direction of the open water and harbour.

I continued to scan through the waders and the area at the back of the Lake.  To the right hand side there were five Ringed Plover feeding on the mud with two Common Sandpipers.  Moving around to the left I found a couple of Snipe and this female or juvenile bearded Tit feeding at the base of the reeds.

Most of the waders were out in the open water or in roost at thee back of the Lake, however there were two Black-tailed Godwits in the channel that leads to the sluice.

Some different stetches.

With tide still rising I felt I had time to walk around to the Deeps to check the pools there before the tide would be high and hopefully some more waders had joined the roost.

As I set off around the sea wall large flocks of Oystercatcher were coming in high from the middle of the harbour to settle on one of the islands just off shore from the sea wall.

Of course as they flew overhead they were calling and it appeared to be family groups, here three immatures and an adult.

Some settled on the mud.

Or the higher ground covered with Bladder Wrack.

Many more birds continued to come in from the harbour, flying low over the water.

The walk to the Deeps was very quiet and things did not improve when I reached there.  Despite perfect wader conditions with plenty of mud and shallow water plus of course the high tide, there was nothing.  I was left watching the Meadow Pipits in and around the ditch and sea wall.

I scanned the marshes for Wheatear and Whinchat, but with no luck.  When I finally came across some cattle I was on the look out for Yellow Wagtail, but there was no sign of any, or the Cattle Egret that have been seen.

I walked around to the information hut and then walked alongside the Stream where there were more Common Sandpipers, Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank.  I startled five Greenshank and they flew off calling, heading towards the Lake.

In crossing the field close to the sea wall, I had to negotiate quite a large herd of cows, as I almost reached the gate three Yellow Wagtail flew up, called and then headed out across the harbour never to be seen again.

The wader roost was now much larger, but again dominated by Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits.  The Greenshank I had seen earlier appeared to have joined a roost of another 18 Greenshank to make a total of 23, a good number.  Common Sandpiper had reached five all feeding along the back of the Lake and in the muddy area to the south along with the Ringed Plover.

There were four Redshank and in amongst the Redshank and Godwits was a sleeping Knot, given away by the dumpy shape and shorter legs as the belly was in the water.  A surprise was a single Brent Goose that was on the water then later took the shore to preen amongst a couple of Avocet.  I can't recall see a Brent Goose in August before.

It was a case of search, search, search, but it wasn't fruitful.  A Black-headed Gull in the blue sky reflected water was a nice composure that broke the monotony.

With such a high tide there was the expectation that the Grey Plover, that are still in summer plumage would have joined the roost, but they were not to be seen, scanning around it became evident that the tide was not as high as was thought, an island just off the sea wall was still to be seen and was covered in many of the Oystercatchers seen earlier and at the tip were quite a few Grey Plover with as hoped most of them in summer plumage.  Unfortunately they were still a distance away.

With time moving on I decided to leave, a pleasant way to spend the afternoon despite the lack of birds that were hoped for.