6th November - Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

Another mild and partially sunny morning saw me deciding to head down to Titchfield Haven for the month's first visit.  On arriving it was very mild out, but the wind from the south was quite fresh and out by the sea it felt cool.  I walked around to the west side of the reserve.  The tide was high and on the spit behind the sailing boats already had a wader roost with Turnstones and Sanderling on the shingle.

I was surprised there were no Ringed Plover, but as I finished scanning the roost up to twenty flew in along with a couple of Dunlin.

I was alone in the Meon Shore hide and dark clouds were away to the north, highlighted by the autumnal sunshine.

There was quite a bit of activity on the scrape.  Away to the right hand side were two Egyptian Geese.  not a bird I photograph regularly but it was nice to get a close up view of this goose that is rapidly spreading in numbers around the country.

These are a pair, but are similar in appearance.

A Little Egret fished on the far side.

While its larger cousin, the Great Egret flew from the direction of the Frying Pan.  It also had to evade the mobbing by a Grey Heron.

Two adult Common Gulls were amongst the Black-headed Gulls.  They would argue over prominent posts, but appeared to be happy to be close to each other.

After awhile they flew off.

Snipe island was busy, not only were there Snipe of which the maximum count was 28, but also eight Redshank and six Teal.  A little later a male Gadwall also dropped in.  The Snipe as always merged into the cut reeds and vegetation.

Here one showing off the flexible bill that enables it to forage deep into the mud.

Looking stunning in the autumn sunshine.

Also seen was a Marsh Harrier at the back of the scrapes and a Buzzard sat in a tree.

The cloud was building up so I decided to walk around to the Spurgin Hide in the hope I would get some closer Marsh Harrier action.  It was deadly quiet in the Spurgin.  The Marsh Harrier did appear but very briefly and well out of view.  The highlights of just over an hour was a fly past by the Great Egret once more.

And a pair of Stonechat feeding on the heads of the Reedmace.  Here the male Stonechat.

With it being so quiet I decided to head back to the Meon Shore Hide.  Shoveler and Gadwall were feeding amongst the many Teal on the South Scrape.  With the tide so high there were still waders roosting on the scrape, this Redshank showing well.

A Marsh Harrier was quartering around the north scrape and when ever it came close to the south, the teal would go up, circle around and then return.  Eventually one Marsh Harrier came down the east side of the scrape and this time just kept coming.  Stopping hovering and dropping low over the reeds.

Normally the harriers would never come so far and if they did they would quickly turn around and head back up river.  This one didn't, it just kept coming.

Hovering feet down as it checked out anything in the reeds below.

Once again this is probably one of the juvenile birds from this year's broods here at the Haven.  The feathers show the light fringes, but they are not as defined as they were a few months ago.

It came even closer, now almost alongside the hide.

It then flew behind the hide and around the bushes before coming back and at last heading back across the scrape and up river.  Definitely some of the best photographs I have taken here of a Marsh Harrier.

Despite the presence of the harrier the snipe remained in place on the island, but there were also a few scattered around the other islands.  I watched this bird as it looked to fly to the snipe island.  I followed it but for some reason it didn't land on the island and ended up on the cut reeds just below the hide.

My favourite.

One of the Redshank coming in to the island.

Then everything went up off the scrape, the sky was full of duck, Lapwing and Gulls.

A female Teal coming past the hide.

There wasn't any sign of a raptor, but when all the Snipe flew from the island I knew there had to be something big causing this.  My first thought was maybe a White-tailed Eagle, but then alongside the west side perimeter fence were two people, an old couple.  It turns out they were trying to get to the Spurgin hide and had walked through the cattle gates because they claimed the path was poorly sign posted.

With the scrape empty I decided it was time to leave.  The tide was still high and there was a much larger wader roost now on the spit.  Good numbers now of Sanderling and Turnstone.

There were also Ringed Plover, some on the beach.

While a group were flying around out on the water.

As I walked back to the car a Cormorant was drying its wings on a post in the bay.  Not something I would normally stop for but it was quite close and I was interested by the state of the feathers.

I walked around the sailing club and out on the sea was a single drake Eider.

It felt like a quiet day but there was quite a bit going on. The highlight has to be the set of photos from the Marsh Harrier and the Snipe a close second