After the storms of the weekend it was a little calmer this morning, overcast when I left home but as I headed south the clouds began to break and the sun appeared. There was still a stiff northerly breeze but no where near as strong as over the weekend.
I was meeting Ian at Sandy Point and as we sorted ourselves out there was a collection of Starlings on the wires around the houses. Sitting in the sunshine their winter plumage was showing well.
We set off around the beach with the tide low and a Shag sitting on one oof the posts in the water. We made our way to the entrance of the harbour in search for divers and grebes. Quite quickly we found a Great Northern Diver fishing in the main channel, the water this time heading out of the harbour.
We watched from the beach in a very stiff and cold north easterly wind and there were two Great Northern Divers and we waited in the hope that they would come a little closer.
A surprise was a Buzzard battling the wind as it flew across the channel and away over the Lifeboat Station.
There were grebes, but only Great Crested Grebes and ironically they would come close to shore. This was the closest shot we were able to get of the Great Northern.
Low tide was around 11:00 and the falling water was revealing sand banks I hadn't seen here before. We walked to the tip of Black Point and watched a Sandwich Tern on the exposed mud.
It then flew off to fish in the shallow surf.
We walked back to the cars and after a quick lunch drove around to Langstone where we walked around the footpath to Langstone Mill Pond. A bonus was a couple of Tufted Ducks that were sitting in some nice dark water.
The intention was to walk to the Emsworth Mill Pond, but we got side tracked as we walked through St Thomas Cemetery in Warblington. Ian spotted a Cattle Egret in the field and we had to go and have a closer look.
We walked around to Pook Lane in search of more Cattle Egrets, the hole in the tree was empty, this seems to be the way at the moment. The single Egret flew along with a Little Egret to a field on the other side of the main Church Lane. We walked around and found a group of eleven Cattle Egrets in the field.
They were not always accepting of each other.
But they are social birds.
A Kestrel was upsetting the Starlings in the field and eventually this spooked the egrets and they flew to the first field opposite the farm house.
Classic Cattle Egret poses.
Like all egrets and herons they have almost binocular eyes.
We decided not to walk to Emsworth and instead spent some time searching the cemetery. After finding the grave of Peter Blake the New Zealand yachtsman who was murdered in Brazil at the turn of the century, we walked back towards the Mill again. Out on the mud were Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwits and Grey Plover.
The Langstone Mill was silhouetted by the sun and the reeds had a glow. The mill was a combination of water mill and windmill and there are remains of both to be seen. It ceased operation at the turn of the twentieth century and is today a residential property.
The duck present on the mill pond had gone, but a Common Gull was bathing in the pond.
Coming around the mill a stream flowing out into the harbour had a Greenshank feeding in it.
We crossed the road to check the harbour from the Southmoor side. On the water was a red head Red-breasted Merganser along with Wigeon, Pintail and Shelduck. On the mud Oystercatcher and Redshank.
The light was going and it was cold in a still fresh northerly wind so we decided to call it a day.
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