I haven't been down to Keyhaven since November, so it was quite exciting as I drove down in the dark this morning. Pulling into the car park just before dawn there was a glow away to the east across Pennington Marsh.
Walking across the Old Tip the sky resembled a galaxy far, far, away.
It was raining at home when I left but here in the west of the county the skies were clearing, it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.
The tide was up and there were plenty of duck on Fishtail Lagoon. This drake Pintail was sleeping in.
There were a few Snipe pinging about and one or two Redshank on Fishtail. Despite the high tide there were very few waders on the islands. This Grey Plover being the stand out.
We set off around the sea wall, the lagoons and marsh were covered in water. A Raven flew over and there were a few Curlew at the back of what was now a very big lagoon on Pennington.
We were looking for the two Slavonian Grebes that had been reported recently and as we reached the turn around Oxey Marsh we found the two on the sea. Distant to start with.
They started to come a little closer.
The Slavonian Grebes are a regular winter visitor to this part of the Solent. If we are lucky they will stay around and start to show some of their spectacular breeding plumage.
They are similar in size to the Black-necked Grebe, bigger than the Little Grebe. The Red-necked and Great Crested being the largest.
Nice to have the two together.
As the grebes swam away we carried on walking around Oxey Marsh. The sun was breaking through and the light was becoming quite special. This drake Wigeon looking special in the dark water and sunshine.
At Moses Dock a Kingfisher zipped across the sea wall, but then returned and perched in a bush close to the water.
A female and I was able to catch it as she dived to catch a fish.
It is believed that the Kingfisher was once a drab grey bird
which, along with the other fauna of the world, was brought onto Noah’s Ark
before the great flood arrived. When Noah sent the Kingfisher to look for land,
it was so overjoyed to be in the sky that it flew up high into the blue
expanse, turning its feathers blue. Then, delighted to have the sun on its
belly, the Kingfisher looped across the sky and the sunlight turned its belly a
fiery orange color. The Kingfisher was so filled with joy that it forgot to
return to the Ark until long after Noah and the other animals had departed.
Consumed with guilt, the Kingfisher stares into the water of lakes and streams
to this day, hoping to see the Ark floating along so that it may make amends to
Noah.
Always a joy to watch.
A Great Black-backed Gull doing what I can only assume was yawning as there was no call.
I watched a Cormorant come up with a large eel and it swam to the other side of an island that hid it from the other Cormorants. We watched as it struggled as it tried to swallow the eel, taking on plenty of water to aid the swallow. The struggle went on for at least 10 minutes, then it dived, but this time came up in the open water and the eel had managed to escape the gullet. The other cormorants saw this and immediately flew in to try and steal the eel. There was quite a struggle and melee.
The steal wasn't successful, the original Cormorant getting away and eventually managing to swallow the eel.
Walking around to Normandy Marsh the sun was still breaking through the clouds.
Nice to see a good number of Avocet on the lagoon.
Sun and cloud over Normandy creating some lovely dark water.
Normandy Lagoon with quite a bit of water.
With the high tide and sparse roosting areas the Dunlin and Ringed Plover were packed together close to the path.
A Little Egret walks across the dark water.
The Brent on the lagoon were calling and would fly out on to the sea.
There was a single Spoonbill on the lagoon asleep, while out on the saltmarsh were seventeen more.
Something spooked the waders and were to be treated to a flying spectacle.
The Avocet too were spooked and flew to the same area as the lone Spoonbill.
And of course the duck were up and flying around the lagoon. Wigeon
And my favourite duck, the Pintail.
Ian and I stood waiting for the Spoonbill to be flushed by sailing boats passing close to them on the saltmarsh. Out on the other side of the Solet there was a fire that was sending smoke across the water and creating a "turner Like" seascape.
Finally the Spoonbill moved, but not far.
The beauty of the drake Pintail shown off well in the sunshine.
Walking back Ian picked out this wader as a possible Spotted Redshank.
And it woke up to show that it was a Spotted Redshank.
As we walked around Oxey Marsh, two of the Spoonbill flew over, one of which is an immature.
The Slavonian Grebes were closer to the Jett now, but a lot further out. On the Jetty Lagoon some smart Shoveler.
Quite a spectacular view on the corner of Butts Bay and Lagoon.
The lagoon and reeds in black and white.
We were tipped off about a Dartford Warbler in the scrub by Pennington Marsh and it was quite easy to find.
There was in fact a pair.
This had me fooled, thinking it was a Robin, Ian put me right!
We had been told about seven White-fronted Geese that had been seen dropping with Canada Geese on to Pennington Marsh but we couldn't find them. So we decided to leave. As I drove past the gate on the bend in the lane I saw three people looking into the field. I stopped and they said they thought they had found Bean Geese. I got out and looked. The geese they thought were Bean were actually Greylag. But look to the left of the Greylag.
Finally they came out and showed a little better, White-fronted Geese to finish off the day.
Once again the Keyhaven - Lymington Reserve delivers. Ian and I also had a great day along with the birds.
No comments:
Post a Comment