2nd January - Hayling Island Oyster Beds and Southmoor, Hampshire

The first outing of the year was under threat the day before with a yellow warning of snow, but waking up early there wasn't any snow or any sign of any coming.  So all was good and I met Ian at the car park just after the Langstone bridge at Hayling.

To start we walked back to the bridge to view the water to the east of the bridge.  We were looking for a Long-tailed Duck, but there wasn't any sign of it.  What we did find was a distant Great Northern Diver and a flock of 59 Avocet flying around the water, probably looking for somewhere to settle, but in the end dropping on to the water.

We walked around to the Oyster Beds where the tide was covering most of the bunds, leaving very little dry land for the wader roost.  A Curlew was close to us on one of the islands.  It was ringed with colour rings and a tag with the letters "K&N".  This is being investigated and it will be interesting to see where the Curlew was ringed.

Information has now been received on Curlew KN:

The curlew was released as part of a re-introduction project in Southern England. Eggs are being taken from ‘at-risk’ nests within stable populations in Northern England, then incubated, hatched and reared in captivity. The young birds are released at three sites in the south: Cranborne in Dorset, Peppering in West Sussex, and Elmley in Kent. The project has been running since 2022. We GPS tag half of the released curlew, so that we can record their movements post-release and monitor their survival.

KN was released at Peppering on 23rd July, 2025.  As this curlew is not tagged, re-sightings are the only means of understanding this bird’s movements since release. Also, getting photos is a really useful way of confirming the birds are healthy and in a good condition.

This curlew has been seen 16 times since release, almost all of which have been at Hayling Island:

More details on the project are given here: https://www.birdguides.com/news/headstarted-curlews-released-in-sussex/

Walking around to the westerly beds the sky was full of waders wheeling around high up looking for some dry refuges.

The rocks around the edge of one bund was a big attraction to the Dunlin, Grey Plover and Knot.

Grey Plover flying in.

Then a surprise, Bar-tailed Godwits, a total of sixteen counted.

The birds couldn't settle and as fast as they flew in they would wheel out again over the water in a cloud of birds.

The slow return to the rocks.

Then a blizzard of Dunling flying out low over the water, an incredible sight.

The Bar-tailed Godwits coming back to the roost.

High tide was around 10:30 and as we reached that time the birds seemed to settle.  The large groups flying out low over the water suddenly stopped and a peace came over the Oyster beds.  Quite amazing really, the birds seemingly knowing the water would now start to recede and the search for dry land would become easier.

We walked around to the main lagoon area where there were Red-breasted Mergansers.  One drake quite close in.

Love this shot, a close up behind the wave.

Aware of us and moving away.

Moving around to the main lagoon, there was another pair close to the path.  This a female red head.

A Kingfisher zipped low across the water and then the drake merganser appeared, love the spikey hair do.

It started preening, here you can see the "saw teeth" on the bill that help with catching fish.

And some interesting positions.

This male was a little further around the lagoon.

Scanning the harbour there wasn't any sign of the reported Scaup, or any grebes other than Great Crested and Little.  So we decided to walk back.  

There were several Rock Pipits along the shore line of the lagoons.

The waders were now all quiet, taking in the time to rest.  A scan of the islands found one Whimbrel.

We spent some time at Northney Marina scanning the water.  We found the Avocet once again and out on the water amongst the sea grass were Wigeon, Shelduck, Teal and Pintail.  However not what we were hoping for, so we decided to try our luck from Southmoor.

It was interesting to see the area and how it has developed as the breach has been left allowing the sea to flow in and create quite a few saltmarsh pools.

Several Redshanks around the saltmarsh and in amongst them a couple of Greenshank

The Pintail on the open water looked a little spooked, so I watched them closely, necks extended is alway an indication of them taking off.

Which is what they did!

A few laps of the saltmarsh.

And then out to the harbour.

With the tide falling, the water was draining out of the saltmarsh, the water flowing through the breach.  The waterfalls created looked quite spectacular and if you didn't know this was Southmoor you might be fooled into thinking these were the waterfalls found in countries like Iceland!

There had been Skylark and Meadow Pipits amongst the grass plus a small flock of Linnet.

We scanned the open water where there were at least eight Goldeneye males.  A couple of Little Grebes had us hoping that maybe we had found something better.  Along teh shoreline were Brent Geese and plenty of Redshank and Curlew.  The sun was now dropping in the sky creating some spectacular clouds over Portsmouth.

We walked to the outflow, but couldn't find any special gulls.  On the foreshore there were more Curlew, a pair of Shoveler and quite a few Wigeon.

With the sun falling the temperature was dropping quickly.  We had missed out on the special grebes and duck, but in all it was a great day and good start to the year.