A window in the awful weather arrived today, it was dry, sunny but still with strong winds. As a result I was back down the A32 to Titchfield, arriving with the tide coming in with strong waves and some lovely autumn sunshine.
I walked around the beach spit where the wader roost was building, although they were still a little bit skittish, flying around. Out of the harbour came a Common Gull flying past low over the water.
The waders finally coming in to settle on the beach at the farthest point, Sanderling and Ringed Plover.
What I didn't realise was that there was a single Dunlin amongst the Sanderling. It has been seen regularly with them over the last few weeks.
The Turnstone were commuting from the other side of the harbour, moving between the two places. This Turnstone avoiding the spray from the lively sea.
There have been mostly immature Ringed Plover on the roost, but today there were several adult birds.
Rushing up the beach to avoid the surf splashing them.
There were also plenty of Sanderling, the main group flying off and leaving this one bird on the beach.
But the group came back and were looking a brilliant silvery white in the sunshine.
With the break in the weather and the fact that the clocks had gone back there were a lot of people about and the whole roost was flushed by a family party that showed no respect for the wildlife, smoking and throwing stones in the sea. It was time to go on to the reserve.
Settling in the Meon Shore hide the water level was high due to the recent heavy rain. The wind was westerly and the many Teal and Shoveler were on the west bank sheltering from the wind. There was a single Snipe on Snipe island and this was all that was close to the hide. Then everything went up and this Sparrowhawk cruised past in front of the hide.
A female, it was as if she was testing the birds on the scrape.
With the higher water in the scrapes there were several Cormorants coming and going between them and the sea.
Then a familiar whistle and a Kingfisher flew in from the right hand side and settled on the strategically place branch in front of the reeds.
It had caught a fish and it looked like the Kingfisher had caught it in the mud.
A few shakes and bangs on the branch and the mud was shaken off, the fish then turned to be swallowed.
A female, showing pink red lower mandible, there was also a hint of a light spot on the end of the bill, so maybe the same female that was seen at the Spurgin hide a few weeks ago.
A turn around to show off the electric blue on the back.
Then it skipped up to the top of the branch.
Then in a flash gone across the scrape and out over th efence towards the canal path.
While watching the Kingfisher it seems the Pintail appeared at the back of the South scrape, about twenty birds to start with, but others flew in, here three females and a male.
The number of Pintail increased gradually reaching at least forty with eight obvious males, I say this as there could be more, they just hadn't moulted into the breeding plumage yet.
Slowly the numbers increased, three more females dropping in.
We were now close to fifty Pintail, continuing the unprecedented numbers here on the scrape. To confirm my suspicions of the number of males the duck second from the left is a male still to get the distinctive brown head.
The final count before I left was of fifty two Pintail including eleven males.
Other duck on the scrape in breeding plumage were Shoveler (which never came close to photograph), a few Gadwall.
And this smart drake Teal that was just below the hide.
The South scrape looking impressive in the sunshine.
Just after I took the above photograph this male Marsh Harrier appeared. It never came too close, but this is the first adult male I have seen since the spring.
The Lapwing were always stirring things up by taking flight for no reason taking a lot of the other birds with them. Here sheltering from the wind on one of the islands.#
You always no when the tide is falling as the Oystercatcher start to move back out to the beach. They leave the roost on the islands and fly either to the left of the right of the hide. Both these birds are immature birds from this breeding season. They have a paler bill and the white chin strap.
The Sparrowhawk seen earlier would come back on several occasions, but not really threatening anything. She was seen on the fence watching and then flew around the scrape. But surprise is her hunting technique. The islands are used by a group of Starling to feed on the seeds from the plants and to bathe in the water. While all the birds go up I thought a duck or wader was a little too big for the Sparrowhawk. I was sure she was looking to take a Starling, so it wasn't a surprise when everything went up again she flew past the hide carrying a Starling in her talons.
In other poor photographs the Starling's beak was seen to be open and closed, so it was still alive as she carried it off towards the West hide.
A fitting end to the day witnessing a successful hunt by the Sparrowhawk. The weather looks to continue the wet and windy days so it is not certain when I will be able to get out again.
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