Horrible forecast for today and as I drove towards Portsmouth the A3 was very wet. I parked in the D-Day car park and it was dry and as I walked towards Southsea Castle there was brightness in the sky away to the east.
I was here for the Purple Sandpipers on the rocks below the castle, but since the work to repair and update the sea wall defences finding them has not been easy. The best time is around two hours before and two hours after high tide. I was here today four hours before high tide so had plenty of time to search for them with plenty of rock exposed
I walked along the esplanade scanning the rocks with the thermal imager, however trying this out on a few crows showed that in the conditions only the area around the eyes looked hot, so any Purple Sandpiper in the rocks was going to have to have its eyes open, or be moving to be picked up. I started off walking east to the main groyne, then walked along the esplanade towards Clarence Pier. The esplanade doesn't reach there yet but it will more than likely be open by the summer. Scanning was finding nothing in the rocks but there was an adult Shag just off the rocks in the sea and it was in full breeding plumage.
Smaller than the Cormorant the bill is slimmer and in the breeding plumage the adult sports a nifty crest and has a high forehead. The plumage appears a bottle green in certain light and there is a distinctive yellow gape without any white around the bill.
Another feature of the Shag is its diving behaviour, it leaps completely out of the water, while the Cormorant prefers to roll forward.
Shags are mostly maritime only venturing onto freshwater pools and lakes in bad weather, whereas the Cormorant can be found well inland and will populate inland lakes and reservoirs where it can be a pest to anglers.
This adult dived close to the rocks and at one point came up with a crab which was dispatched quickly.
Like the Cormorant the Shag has to spend time drying their wings as they lack the oils found in other sea birds.
Movement on the rocks raised my hopes but it turned out to be a pair of Crows and they were inspecting the Limpets.
Three hours to high tide and the skies were clear with sunshine, not what was forecast. The tide was beginning to cover the lower rocks.
With the sun out the Shag was lit up a little better.
I continued to walk up and down the esplanade, walking at times on the wall to get some elevation to be able to look down on the rocks. Still nothing to be found.
With two hours to go the rocks were now almost covered up to those covered in bladder wrack and algae and we still had sunshine.
Another walk aback and forth and this time there was an immature Shag fishing just off the rocks.
The immature Shag can be confused with an immature Cormorant, however a good indicator is the much slimmer bill and the clean white patch on the neck. It the Cormorant there is a yellow patch within the white.
I mentioned earlier the different diving method, well I managed to capture a sequence that demonstrates this well.
The body completely out of the water.
With thirty minutes to go before my parking ticket was up I decided to walk one more time to the west. You can't go beyond the Blue Reef Aquarium, but it is possible to view the rocks. As I walked up three feral Pigeons dropped on to the rocks. As I watched them I noticed a shape on one of the rocks, this was the view.
A closer look and at last I had found one, just in time.
Completely unconcerned by the crashing waves.
They are about the size of a Dunlin and look similar. The Purple Sandpiper gets its name from the purple sheen of its plumage seen in good light. The plumage though provides ideal camouflage amongst the rocks.
Here with two of the Feral Pigeons.
I am always impressed by how they can cling to rocks while the waves crash in.
It then dropped from view and I just about had time to get back to the car. In the end a successful trip, but I had to put in the leg work to get there.
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