20th August - Hook, Warsash and Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

Showers were forecast today and all around as I drove south the clouds were dark and threatening.  The plan today was to start at Hook, specifically the TLC field for Horses on Workman Lane.  I parked up and walked around to the field.  Swallows were all around the overhead wires, juvenile birds having just fledged and waiting to be fed by the parents.

I walked up to the area known as the Donkey Field which currently doesn't have a donkey in it, and had a Wheatear pointed out to me in the field opposite.

There is a fence line that runs east alongside the Donkey Field and this is the area where the chats get at this time of year.  There were two Stonechats present and a very distant single Whinchat.

I was though here for the Yellow Wagtails, two flew over calling but kept going.  I walked around the filed and checked the horses and found four feeding around the horse's mouths and feet.

Apparently there have been up to twelve in the area, the maximum I saw was four at one time.

I walked back to Workman Lane and concentrated on the swallows on the wires.

Here a juvenile Swallow still showing the yellow gape on the mouth.

You wait for the young bird to flap its wings and then you know the adult is coming to feed it.

The juveniles stayed on the wires, but the adults were also perching in the nearby oak tree, not something I have seen before.

Amongst the Swallows were a few immature Sand Martins.

And immature House Martins that were also perching in the oak tree.

I decided to walk down to the beach behind the sub station.  Walking down the lane there was a Whitethroat amongst the bramble.

And a little further along the obligatory Painted Lady.

As I came out on to the beach I disturbed two Curlew.

I wanted to check the gorse area to see if there were any Whinchats and Wheatear, but it was very quiet, with nothing moving at all.

The clouds were bubbling up away to the west, rain was coming and the wind had picked up.  The clouds look very impressive in black and white.

Oystercatchers were moving, all mostly flying up Southampton Water.

When I reached the slipway at the bottom of the path that runs down adjacent to Solent Breezes holiday park I noticed a collection of gulls on the foreshore.  As I walked down to get a closer look I passed a Common Gull on the beach.

There was a ring on the left leg, however the only characters I could see was the number '3', which isn't going to be much use in getting information.

I initially thought the bird to be an adult but on a closer look you can see that the tertiaries are in moult which would indicate that this is probably a third year bird moulting into the adult plumage.

The gulls on the foreshore were Mediterranean Gulls, adults having lost their black hoods but retaining the pure white plumage, a black smudge behind the eye and the lovely red bill.

From Warsash I drove around to Titchfield Haven once more.  I parked on the sea wall and away to the west there were very dark clouds that were threatening rain.  I decided to try and watch out the possible storm by having lunch in the Meon Shore Hide.  Things hadn't changed much from my last visit, the water level was high and the young Common Tern was sitting with the parent on the wooden perches.

There was only a splash of rain as the storm passed to the north of us, but this did provide a lovely dark sky to photograph the Common Terns against.

For some reason everything went up on the scrape and then flew around for awhile.  This brought the Black-tailed Godwits close to the hide, this individual passing right in front of the hide.

Eventually everything settled down and from nowhere a Spoonbill appeared at the top end of the scrape.  

I wanted to check the bay for the reported Garganey so walked around to the viewing platform to find there were no duck.  This bird has made a habit of disappearing, so it may possibly be still around maybe in front of the closed Suffern Hide!.

Watching from the bridge a Common Tern fished in the river water.

Another patch of heavy dark clouds were threatening from the west, the onshore winds helping the many wind surfers out on the Solent.

The clouds were very dramatic over Fawley.

The rain hit as I was driving along the A27 and M27 home.  At times visibility being reduced to the car in front.  Water was everywhere but probably not being collected in the right places.  By the time I turned onto the M3 it was dry and remained so all the way home.