I had been watching the forecast for a week, all the signs were good, south easterly winds overnight and into the morning at the start, but s we got closer to Tuesday it was showing the winds a little more towards south, but still in the east half of the compass. The days before had southerlies which would help any passage out of the Bay of Biscay.
I was determined to get to Hill Head early, just after sun rise, so was up at silly o'clock as my wife calls it. It was a lovely drive, with a quarter phase moon and the sun rising into clear blue skies. However the clear skies were a problem, the sea birds would be pushed closer to shore, but would they want to go through the narrow gap at Hurst Spit, into the Solent? With clear skies would they see this to be a risk and end up following the coast around the Isle of Wight past St Catherine's Point.
Arriving at Hill Head the wind was quite a breeze and also cold. There were a few birders present and they had not seen anything out of the ordinary. There were Terns moving but they were very distant, impossible to identify. One or two came close and were mostly Common and Sandwich, but also one or two Little Terns, but nothing that you would call passage.
The reports started to come in of movement at Milford and Stokes Bay, but still nothing at Hill Head. The only birds of note were these Sandwich Terns passing along past the sea wall.
Three hours in the birders that had been with me left and I decided to walk to the visitor centre to check in to go onto the reserve. Coming back a car pulled in and said there was a Pom reported coming into the Solent, I looked at my phone, I had missed the message it was sent at 8:40, it was now 9:15. I ran to get my scope and then another message, the Pom seen off Browndown at 9.12. Had it passed us? I scanned and scanned but nothing, then at 9:30 a report it had passed Gilkicker, I had missed it, why don't I stick at it, why did I leave?
I decided to continue watching and in an hour the most exciting thing was a movement of seven Brent Geese and three Gadwall offshore fighting over a female.
Ian arrived just after 10:00 and we continued to watch for another hour, but there was nothing more of interest. We decided to go into the reserve and headed for the Meon Shore Hide. There was a distant Common Sandpiper on the central causeway and an even more distant couple of Swifts, the first of the year, but the highlight was this male Shelduck preening in front of the hide, showing off his stunning colours.
The bright red bill.
And the iridescent green in the tertials.
After a quick stop to see if the Lesser Whitethroat would show by the viewing platform, which it wasn't we decided to head to the Browndown South area, whilst the wind was taking the edge off the temperature, in sheltered spots it would be warm so there may be a chance of butterflies, or more adders.
As we walked down to the entrance a Small White butterfly was along the side of the path. A Whitethroat was singing from the top of a clump of bramble, showing very well.
A lovely blurred background provided by the distant houses.
As we reached the gate a lady coming out told us there were two male Adders showing along the side of the main path, "dancing". She gave us some directions and we ran off, ahead of use we could see some people looking in to the vegetation and as we arrived the Adders weren't showing, but then two appeared together wrapped around each other and twisting and turning, their heads alongside each other
They would disappear into the bracken and vegetation, then appear through the bluebell leaves, sometimes together or sometimes on their own.
But they would not be on their own for long.
Love this shot. How are you doing?
Two
We saw two males together back in early March, they were quite happy then to lay around each other. Since then they have sloughed their skin and probably fed and now wanting to get involved with the important business of mating, but unfortunately all the males seem to feel the same way.
They were fighting over a female and we could only get a glimpse of her, down amongst the vegetation. Males have the black zig zags on the dorsal side and either a "V" or "X" shaped mark on the back of the head. The female is usually much bigger, you can see the girth here is considerably bigger. The females have brown markings against a light brown background.
Male Adders are attracted by the strong scent of a receptive female and conduct this "Dance of the Adders". This usually involves two males in a frantic race through the vegetation, during which they will rise up with their bodies twisted together in an attempt to force each other to the ground.
These two adders were different sizes, the more silvery grey one was the smaller. Usually the larger snake will come out victorious, but this "dance" had been going on apparently before we turned up and we watched them for another 90 minutes and left them still fighting.
Every so often you would one or two gently caress the body of the female.
But this break in proceeding did not last long and they were back twisting around each other.
The flicks became stronger, throwing each other to the ground, but they both kept going.
The winner will stay with the female, guarding her from other suitirs, before eventually mating with her.
After mating, Adders will live a solitary life. The young are born live, in clutches of ten usually around August.
Every so often they would disappear into the vegetation and you would think it was over, but they would appear together and do it all over again.
Here you can see the "V" or "X" marks on the back of the head.
It was quite exhausting to watch.
Ian and I had witness the dance a couple of years ago here at Browndown, then we felt privileged to witness it as it was always something we wanted to see, we never thought we would witness it again. At one point there were three males present, but it was these two that kept fighting.
There were other things we wanted to find today, so had to drag ourselves away. We came back later and they were still fighting as we watched then the larger Adder seemed to be paying the female much more attention than the smaller and it seemed as if the fight was over, based on what we were told and what we witnessed this dance must have gone on for well over five hours.
Walking on we came across one of the butterflies we hoped to find, the Small Copper, my first of the year.
We searched the gorse and heather area in search of Nightjar, but it might have been a little too early for them. We also had several glimpses of Dartford Warbler and an elusive Lesser Whitethroat, as we reached the gate once more a Dartford Warbler was a little more showy, but kept its back to me.
The day was saved by the amazing spectacle of the Adders, I was so frustrated with the sea watch and once again should have stuck at it. Will there be another chance this spring?
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