31st October - Titchfield Haven Canal Path and Hill Head, Hampshire

I decided to walk the Titchfield Canal path from Bridge Street, the first time in a while.  Before setting off south I turned north to check the fields around the horse stables for the almost resident Glossy Ibis.  There was not any sign of them so I turned back and walked south towards the sea.  

I checked the tree for the Barn Owl, but nobody was home.  There was though the Buzzard in the willow tree overlooking the Bridge Street Floods.

There was four Pintail on the floods along with quite a few Teal.  Walking on towards Posbrook there was a lot of Highland Cattle in the fields around the Posbrook Floods.  They were attracting several Magpies, this individual bird on the black bull of the herd.

Then five birds on one of the cows

Then four.

Then half way along the path a female Stonechat catching insects from the top of a Hawthorn bush.

There was very little else as I walked the length of the path and reaching the calm sea it too was devoid of birds except for half a dozen Great Crested Grebes

In Duck Bay there were quite a few Shoveler.  The water here was calm and still and reflecting well.

I walked around to the spit behind the sailing club, I could see there were Sanderling and Ringed Plover on the beach and I decided to walk down to get to the Ringed Plover.  One was standing on the concrete wall.

I counted 50 Ringed Plover on the beach, my highest count of the season so far.

Just after I had counted 72 Sanderling and 4 Dunlin, the whole roost took off and flew around over the water.

In the bay there were six Common Gulls perched on the posts.

From the view point I walked around to western side of the reserve and the Meon Shore Hide.  A drake Teal was on the island in front of the hide

Then a surprise, a Grey Wagtail dropping on to the island.  Grey Wagtail are difficult to photograph, they never seem sharp, mostly because they bob all the time and in the gloom this means the ISO  has to go high.  This bird was also interesting as it had an orange coloured breast.

Then the whistle and the appearance of a Kingfisher on to the wooden posts to the right side of the hide.

It then flew to the posts on the left hand side, a female bird with the pink on the lower mandible and the white tip on the bill indicates an immature bird, one of this year's broods.

There were twenty seven Snipe hidden on the island, this one though showed well sitting in the water.

It then started to preen and bathe.

The Snipe then gave me the chance to bring up a very big word.  The word is Rhynchokinesis which is the ability possessed by some cranes, waders, swifts and hummingbirds to flex their upper beak or rhinotheca. Rhynchokinesis involves flexing at a point some way along the upper beak - either upwards, in which case the upper beak and lower beak or gnathotheca diverge, resembling yawn.  Here as the Snipe bathed you can see the bill flexing on the upper mandible.

I ten turned attention to the Teal close to the hide and another feature, the iridescence of the feathers, in this case the speculum.

Here it shows green.

But then a slight turn and the speculum shows a deep purple.

Back to green.

Then a mixture of two.

And blue again

Another Snipe showing in the dark shadows.

Then another surprise on the west bank of the scrape a Fox appeared.

It looked like a dog Fox and in great condition.

It was interested in the Teal and Snipe on the edge of the scrape.

There is a predator fence all the way around the scrape, built to protect the birds on the scrape, clearly the fox has found a way in which is not good.  There has to be a hole in the fence somewhere.

The Fox walked up to the fence near the Pumfrett Hide, then came back along the fence.  It stopped and listened to something beyond the fence.  Then it did this.

The fence looks easy to climb, but the angled top part would prevent the Fox from climbing, but didn't stop it climbing out.

I had to walk back up the Canal Path as I left the sea front this Cormorant flew over with a very full gullet.

There were distant Red Kite and Marsh Harrier as I walked back towards Bridge Street.  In the fields at Posbrook this Highland Cow posed very nicely.

Some interesting bits and pieces during the day.  The weather remains dull and quite frankly not helping in providing anything else interesting.