24th March - Posbrook and Bridge Street Floods and The Haven, Hampshire

 My initial plan today was to go to Southsea to hopefully catch up with the Red-necked Grebe that has been around for the last few days.  However just before leaving there was a report that there was no sign, so I changed plans and headed for the Bridge Street car park once more.  This time I just intended to check the floods and not walk the canal path and would then go onto the Haven, or where ever should anything else be reported.

On arrival there was a report of Sand Martin, so I headed down the path scanning the skies as I went.  On reaching the footpath that runs along the bottom of Posbrook Floods I picked up some hirundines over the trees. I could see Sand Martin, and what I thought was a House Martin.  I started to photograph what I thought were the Sand Martin, but it turns out that it was in fact the House Martin.

This was an early sighting of House Martin for me.

I did manage to get on the Sand Martin, there were at least five over the floods.

A Swallow was reported but I am not sure if I did manage to get on it.

I walked back to the car park and then around to view the Bridge Street floods from the traffic lights.  As I walked along the road quite a few Mediterranean Gulls flew over calling and on reaching the view point I could see a large gathering on the water.

Scanning the floods I could see Black-tailed Godwits and a pair of Pintail, then at the back two Glossy Ibis.

It would seem that recently the three have become two.

With nothing else of interest reported elsewhere I headed to the Haven, parked in Cliff road and then walked around to the west side of the reserve.  Water levels were high once again, we only had a small amount of rain over the last few days but it would appear the ground water is high and this is stopping quick drainage.  I could see that it would be better from the Pumfrett Hide, so left the Meon Shore and started along the track.  The tame fox appeared in front of me, completely unconcerned with my presence.

I was able to get close and some nice portraits.

This is probably a young male, he has lovely clean teeth.

The fox walked ahead of me and after it went around a bend, it came back to check if I was still coming.  I caught up with it as it stopped to inspect a leaf and have a good scratch.

Once again there were plenty of singing Chiffchaff in the adjacent willow trees.

Opening the window in the hide it was good to see that more of the reeds had been cut back to show a lot more of the north scrape.  With the water levels high the normal island the snipe roost on was virtually covered.  around half a dozen had taken up roosting amongst the cut reeds.  

Time for a preen.

And a good shake.

There were more Mediterranean gulls here on the scrapes with most of them occupying the central causeway.

This looks like a bust up between an adult and second calendar year bird, the gull closest to the camera having black edges to the primaries, not seen in an adult.

An adult drops on to the causeway.

A recent feature around the reserve has been the young male Goosander.  It was first seen as a red head, in eclipse plumage last summer and has now turned into a smart male Goosander.  However he has struck up a relationship with a female Shelduck.  It is not clear what the thinking is here, does the Goosander think he is a Shelduck as there are so many, or maybe he thinks the female Shelduck is a Goosander.

Breeding would be difficult I am sure as the two ducks have different diets for one thing.  What is clear though is that the Goosander is never far from his Shelduck mate.

Despite all the drama around the relationship it is good to get some great views of a very smart duck.

As well as the Snipe there was a single Lapwing feeding amongst the cut reeds.

Avocet numbers have gradually built up over the last few weeks with a high count today of 42.  They are now almost all in pairs and feed together all over the scrapes.  This individual though spent sometime preening close to the hide and put in some lovely positions to show off the black and white plumage and that magnificent bill.

Back to the Goosander and things were hotting up, as well as following the female Shelduck around the Goosander was clearly not prepared to lose her to one of own kind.  If any male Shelduck came too close then this is what would happen.

Remember that bill has sharp serrations used to catch and hold fish, it could do some nasty damage to the Shelduck and they did n't take any chances.

I am not sure if the Shelduck were after the female or just got too close as they fed, but the Goosander wasn't taking any chances, he was not going to lose his mate.

After several chase and lunges the Goosander would preen and have a good wing flap.

Drake Shoveler were also attempting to lure females away and this resulted in drakes flying around the scrape.

A pair of Marsh Harrier cruised over flushing a lot on the scrape and as a result there was the opportunity to catch these Avocet in flight.

The scrape is full of Black-headed Gulls now as they display, pair and look for suitable nesting sites.  With all this are the constant calls of the gulls that you come to block out after a while.  One or two fthe Black-headed Gulls were sporting a bright pink flush on the breast.  There was some debate in the hide as to how this happens.

One theory I read about was that this caused through daily preening.  The gull having consumed a considerable amount of carotenoid foods, which are around 750 naturally occurring pigments synthesized by algae, plants and photosynthetic bacteria and give colour to the yellow orange and red colours in plants.  The colour finds itself into the preen gland and is then wiped across the plumage.

The six species of gull of the day was a Common Gull over the scrape.

And just before I left the hide a nice adult Mediterranean Gull against the white of the overcast sky.

As I headed back to the car I walked around the sailing club.  A "Pied" Wagtail came up from the beach and on to the grass, it looking pale but with striking black markings.  A White Wagtail.

At present, there are nine recognised subspecies of White Wagtail Motacilla alba. Six of these forms occur or have occurred in the Western Palearctic (alba; leucopsis; ocularis; personata; subpersonata; yarrellii). The latter is the familiar Pied Wagtail, a common British and Irish species with limited migration, and very rare instances of breeding in north-west France and southern Norway. Meanwhile, leucopsis (Amur Wagtail), ocularis (East Siberian Wagtail) and personata (Masked Wagtail) have occurred in Britain as extreme vagrants, with single records of each.

The continental form is Motacilla alba alba – White Wagtail – and it breeds commonly across Europe, from as far west as Iceland (and even Greenland) east to the Ural Mountains and Turkey, reaching as far north as the Arctic Circle. Many are migratory, spending the winter in southern Europe and Africa, and as far south as Kenya and Malawi.

White Wagtail is a passage migrant through Britain from early March to May and from mid-August to early November. Most we receive are from the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland – indeed, it's likely that the entire populations of these birds pass through Britain and Ireland. 

An adult White Wagtail is a fetching bird, especially males. Perhaps the most striking feature is the mantle – clean and silvery-grey, contrasting markedly with the head and wings. This smart appearance is rather different to the dark, smoky and diffuse tones of Pied Wagtail. The rump is pale grey on White Wagtail – black on Pied.

So at last some movement and the first hirundines of the year.  There was more action on the scrapes than I expected s all in all a good day