So I was back, but not too hopeful. Last evening the skies were clear and the wind had dropped, conditions perfect for the Wryneck to move on. This morning it was heavily overcast and with a strong south westerly wind. I pulled up along Cliff Road and then watched the sea from the bench.
First picked up were four Black Terns heading south and then three Common Scoter on the sea. Things then went quiet, then later a Peregrine put up all the gulls and waders on the beach. It headed off towards Lee-on-the-Solent where we then picked up another Peregrine high and distant above the flats. A Starling flock went up but that was about all.
After an hour and a half I walked to the visitor centre then made the way around to the west side stopping in the harbour where there was the Goosander, which is now looking like a male in eclipse. There is white coming on the breast and flanks and a large panel of white in the wing.
More interesting though is that there are now two Goosander in the harbour. The eclipse male being joined by a juvenile bird. It looks much thinner, less stocky and has a white stripe under the ey which is diagnostic of a juvenile Goosander.
Walking alongside the river the juvenile flew on to the water and here you can see the size and the white stripe under the eye a lot clearer.
Both birds were then seen snorkelling around the reeds and then swam up river.
Rather than go straight on to the reserve I took some time to walk along the footpath in the vain hope of seeing the Wryneck. Just to make things even better the posts where it was seen last night were also pointed out to me.
In the Meon Shore Hide a Common Sandpiper flew to the wood platforms in front of the hide.
It then dropped down on to the mud and island in front of the hide and gradually came closer to feed in amongst the old reeds shafts.
A Kingfisher flew to the posts twice, but never stayed long enough to raise the camera. There was a huge flock of around 300 Black-tailed Godwits spread out over the scrape, and also quite a few Avocet. The birds stayed distant and only this Redshank came close.
There was not as many duck as seen yesterday, there was one Pintail, six Shoveler and several Teal, all in eclipse. This female Teal sat on the middle of the island.
It was apparent with the weather conditions that not very much was going to change so I decided to leave and make my way home. In Duck Bay this Little Egret stood in the black water in the corner of the bay.
As I sorted out my bags in the car a Raven flew over being mobbed by Jackdaws.
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