Through the week the forecast for Saturday was very good, some lovely autumnal sunshine. But as Saturday approached the forecast became indifferent, with a large high pressure system positioned over the United Kingdom the winds were still and with this came cloud on the outer sides of the high pressure, Friday was very grey and as I drove towards Lymington the skies looked much the same. So arriving in the car park it was very still and grey, the sun only just risen it wasn't the lovely golden sunshine Ian and I had hoped for.
Undeterred we set off across the Old Tip towards Fishtail Lagoon. A scan of the water at the back of the lagoon produced nothing, no waders at all. Admittedly it was low tide, so hopefully as the tide rose the waders would come to the lagoons to roost and feed. What was nice to see was a drake Pintail in almost complete winter breeding plumage' but you get some idea of how gloomy it was with the grainy shot.
We walked around to Keyhaven Lagoon, which was very similar to Fishtail, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler and Gadwall, mostly all in eclipse plumage.
At Butts Bay the tide was out as far as the edge of the bay. There were Redshank feeding at the waters edge and in amongst them, feeding in a completely different way was a Spotted Redshank. Still not ideal photographic conditions but good enough to pick out the distinct features of the wader.
We sat on the bench and as we watched the Spotted Redshank we noticed that there was a lot of fish breaking the surface on the still water. A little further off shore there was a Grey Seal eating one of the said fish, quite a big one, probably a Grey Mullet.
We walked past Butts and Jetty Lagoon and then on past Pennington with little of interest about. Out on the sea were Great Crested Grebes and a single darke Eider in the distance.
On Oxey Lagoon there were a few Wigeon, this drake almost in its breeding plumage.
Oxey Lake was pretty much all mud and there was a good number of waders feeding, noteworthy were a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits, Knot and Dunlin. At the turn towards Moses Dock a Curlew was on the mud and after initially trying to tackle a worm from the mud it then found a crab which was shifted around in the bill before being swallowed legs and all.
The bramble by the side of the path had a pair of Stonechat
Oxey Creek was pretty much drained and a Redshank and Greenshank was feeding in the shallow water. We concentrated on the Greenshank.
We crouched down and hoped the people walking along the pat would drive it towards us, but everybody either turned back or turned off the path.
At Slaterns another Spotted Redshank swam from the shore close to the path.
There were lots of walkers about and one group stopped to ask if we had seen anything exotic. At which point a couple of Kingfisher appeared have a right barney. Eventually they flew off with one stopping on the fence with its back to me.
Another Greenshank was in one of the channels on the opposite side to the Eight Acre Pond
While as we walked past the sluice a Curlew showed well close in.
As we walked to Normandy the mud out in Oxey Lake was now all covered with only the longest legged waders, Black-tailed Godwits and Curlew still feeding. At Normandy there was some mud offshore and here they were some waders feeding, the best of which was a Bar-tailed Godwit.
Shorter legged than th emore familiar Black-tailed Godwit, it also has a very different feeding technique, much slower and methodical. The bill is slightly up turned and the plumage resembles mor the Curlew than the Black-tailed Godwit.
Other waders were Grey Plover and Turnstone.
And several Ringed Plover.
There were three Spoonbill on one of the lagoon's islands, initially all seen sleeping then two decided to feed, these look like adult and immature.
Turning to walk back I scanned the saltmarsh and picked up a Peregrine on one for light markers for the ferries.
Our walk back took us across the marsh and up to the sea wall at Pennington. From there we made our way back to Fishtail and Keyhaven. There were waders now but they were at the back of the lagoons, to distant for the cameras. A Buzzard came across the saltmarsh, raising some hopes before we realised what it was.
With the tide rising there were a few Grey Plover on the mud islands. This one still showing some of the summer breeding plumage as it moults to the silvery grey winter colours.
A whistling call from above signalled the arrival of two Golden Plover.
Back on Fishtail we finally found one drake Pintail in full breeding plumage.
My favourite duck is back!
It was time for lunch and we headed back to the car park. As we dropped down from the sea waal and walked alongside the bank a female Sparrowhawk flushed for the bank and flew along the stream, alighting on the fence that sticks out over the water.
This was the best we could get as she kept her back to us, and eventually she flew off, again along the stream.
Ian managed to find her again, but I was not able to get on her before she flew off. We thought that was it, but it wasn't and the full details will be shown in the next seperate post.
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