14th September - Farlington Marshes and Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

Another warm and sunny start, the Indian Summer continues.  The tide was still out as I arrived at the lower car park at Farlington and rather than take the sea wall I crossed the field through the bushes towards the stream.  One Kestrel evaded me, flying off as I tried to get a better light, when I came across another one I decided to go for the silhouette.

There was very little on the stream and I was also disappointed to see there was no activity in the bushes around the visitor hut.  As I walked towards the sea wall I could see good numbers of cattle in the Hay Field.  Reaching the fence I could see, distantly, two Cattle Egrets around the cows.  As I watched them one flew across the field followed by another.

I walked to the part of the fence where I thought they might have settled, but as I moved to look they flew off and were joined by yet another making three in total.  The disappointment in missing out on the egrets was soon lost as I realised that there were Yellow Wagtails in and and around the cattle close in.

The grass was long which made it hard to focus on the wagtails, so I had to be satisfied with the cow and bird shots.

Coming out on to the sea wall the tide was now rising.

I walked north a short distance in hope of getting a view of the Cattle Egrets or maybe more Yellow Wagtail, but it wasn't possible, so turned and headed south round the marshes.

Coming past the brick house I noticed a bird perched at the top of a bramble bush, a Whinchat.

For once I wasn't disturbed by dog walkers and I was able to get a little closer

There were in fact two birds present.

They then dropped from the sea wall to the bushes below, and then almost immediately disappeared.

A little further along two more chats on the fence wire, this time a couple of immature Stonechats.

I had scanned the dead trees on the island for Osprey with nothing showing, then a large raptor with a pale head passed overhead and I thought immediately Osprey, but on close examination this is a Buzzard and was joined by another with what was more conventional plumage.

With the rising tide the waders were seeking places to roost in the harbour.  Here Curlew and Oystercatcher were disturbed by a pair of kayakers who seemingly had no sympathy for the waders and steered close past the waders putting them all up.

At the Lake there were plenty of birds with the usual large Redshank and Black-tailed Godwit roosts.  The numbers of duck had also significantly increased with well into the hundreds of Wigeon, all still in eclipse and quite a few eclipse Pintail.  I am sure they will not come this close when the winter plumage arrives.

I found four Curlew Sandpiper on the far side of the lake, behind them was a substantial number of Knot.

A group of Grey Plover flew in.

And in amongst them two Bar-tailed Godwits, these digi-scoped.

I waited to see if there was any more activity but everything started to settle down, so I decided the best place in the warmth would be a hide so I drove the short journey to Titchfield Haven.

I headed for the Meon Shore Hide and as is usual most of the waders were at the back of the scrape.  There had been two Great Egrets present but only one was left, standing amongst the Canada Geese on the far island.

A Pied Wagtail in front of the hide provided some interest for awhile before I settled on this as a "Pied" Wagtail, probably female.

Then something else interesting a Golden Plover on one of the middle islands.

You never know at this time of year and the broad eye stripe had me thinking it might have been American, but the broad consensus was European Golden Plover.

Not a bird you see on the scrape that often.

The waders were now starting to come a little closer, yet another Common Sandpiper.

But what I wanted was for the juvenile Curlew Sandpipers to come a little closer.  Which is what they did, the first one of the two

Then the other joined.

Book ends!

I love the way the mud disturbed as they feed leaves the dark trails in the water.

The Curlew Sandpipers remained around the small island in front of the hide, I was then drawn to a juvenile Little Ringed Plover which took the days wader count to 19 species.

And finally yet another showy Snipe around the small island.

Hot afternoons are not conducive with birding so I decided to call it a day at about 14:00, nothing new today but some nice photographic opportunities nevertheless.