29th December - Keyhaven - Lymington Reserve, Hampshire

After some very poor weather over the Christmas holidays, today, there seemed to be an opportunity for some more clement weather and hopefully some good light.  With this in mind I arranged to meet Ian at Lower Pennington Lane, just before sun rise.  After a quick check of the flooded field near the car park we took our usual walk alongside Fishtail Lagoon to the sea wall

Water levels were still high but there was shallower pools at the back and here there were good numbers of Lapwing and as usual they were quite flighty, circling around the lagoon.

The tide was rising, but there was still plenty of mud, this Redshank silhouetted by the morning light across the mud.

On Fishtail the Pintail were quite close for once and as the sun started to break through it picked out the drakes.

A small group of eight Golden Plover flew down to settle on the lagoon amongst the Lapwing.

A nice opportunity to be able to get some closer shots of this delightful plover.

Very high above us a huge flock circled the marsh, the tightness of the flock like scribbling across the sky.

The sun was breaking through the clouds that were hugging the Isle of Wight and sending that golden winter light across the marsh and mud.

It was back to the Pintail that were continuing to show really well close to the path.

Here the drake was concerned about something, the neck extended a sign that it was likely to take flight.

Which it eventually did.

But after circling around it returned.

But never really settled.

And was soon off again, this time for good.

We moved on, walking around Butts and on to the Jetty Lagoon where we quickly located the Greater Scaup.  It was looking more Scaup like today, much of the dirty brown feathers that were present on the upper parts having changed to the pale grey of an adult male.

Past the Jetty and on to Pennington Lagoon where there were two Spoonbill feeding at the back of the lagoon.

Both were immature birds with the pale flesh coloured bills.

Having got out of the water it seemed to be unsure of how to get back in, probably forgotten that it could fly!

At the eastern end of the lagoon were three more Spoonbill.  This time two adults and an immature.  The two ringed birds are from the Netherlands, one, the immature, having been seen a couple of weeks ago

They were then joined by others flying in.

There were now eight Spoonbill on Pennington Lagoon.

We continued on with Teal and Greenshank on the Oxey Marsh.

While at Moses Dock this Great Crested Grebe showed very well.

Almost in full breeding plumage.

At Salterns a nice Little Egret with the wispy plumes around the neck.

Sharing the pool with the Little Egret on Salterns were two more Spoonbill, an adult and immature bird.  This is the best place to photograph them as you can get down to eye level with them and look directly at them as the feed.

A real close up as they toss their catch up to swallow.

Here you can see the curved tip to the end of the bill.

It was also an opportunity to get down low with the Wigeon, the sunshine enhancing the golden crown.

And the usual Spotted Redshank on the pool.

At Normandy there was a huge high tide wader roost.  On the water there was a pair of Goldeneye, Avocet and of course more Spoonbill, we counted 16 in total which conservatively around the reserve meant there must be at least 24.

We walked to the south side of the lagoon to get the sun in the right place and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers were close in as initially they preened showing off the serrated edges of the bill.

Then like the Pintail earlier in the day the neck extended as if to take off.

But they settled back down to preen.

Leaving the Mergansers there was a Greenshank feeding a little further along.

Al the duck went up and a Peregrine drifted over the lagoon.

It didn't appear to be hunting and eventually was seen to fly out to a sand bar on the sea.

A drake Teal sitting in the grass and sunshine.

A wider view of the wader roost in the middle of the lagoon, it consisted of mostly Dunlin.

Every so often the would go up and would show some lovely patterns as they wheeled around the lagoon.

But they would settle back down, this view would make a good puzzle.

We had been looking for the Slavonian Grebes and eventually found them in the channel quite close to the sea wall for once.  There were three together diving and drifting along with the tide.

It was great to be able to get clear and close images for once.

The Spoonbill were on the move again and three left the lagoon heading west.

As we started to leave we came across this red head Goosander in the south west corner.

Approaching Eight Acre Pond we came across someone looking in the gorse and assumed there must be a Dartford Warbler, which there was and after a short wait it showed very well in the sunshine

Back at Pennington The Golden Plover were restless.

And there was an opportunity to see the Scaup in the sunshine.  The light bringing out some green in the plumage on the head.

As we crossed the Old Tip a Marsh Harrier came low over the marsh scattering the Golden Plover and Lapwing.  A male it continued its progress over Butts Lagoon and off to the west.

With the harrier gone the Golden Plover eventually started to return to the marsh.

A great way to end the year, winter birding at Keyhaven - Lymington is always special and if you get the sunlight it can be quite spectacular for photography.