After a couple of days of rain the forecast was a little better today, but as I walked around the sea wall at Hill Head in a warm jacket I wondered if there was going to be a heat wave! As I crossed the harbour bridge the young female Marsh Harrier was hunting over the reeds on the far side.
Ii was back at Titchfield, mainly because there was to be overcast conditions today and that would not be conducive to finding butterflies, which is what I should be doing at this time of year.
I entered the reserve on the west side with Reed Warbler and Linnet singing by the main gate. I headed to the Meon Shore hide, because you do. In front of the hide an Oystercatcher was on the small island in front of the hide.
I was taken by the orange beak contrasting with the black feathers of the breast.
With the strong south westerly wind there were Swifts and House Martins once more, but they were at the north scrape, so I didn't stay long in the Meon Shore and walked around to the Pumfrett.
The Marsh Harrier was back and fighting the wind on the far side of the scrape, something it seems to do quite a bit.
It reaches the causeway then lets the wind take it up and it heads back to do it all again.
The male Goosander was on the causeway, but took the time to swim out on to the south scrape.
Gone is the smart bottle green head feathers and the dark grey back, having been replaced by the eclipse plumage that will no doubt confuse a lot of visitors once again, claiming a female red head.
This is now the Goosander's third summer here at Titchfield. It spent a lot of time with its head under water and then coming up with mud. The water level being too shallow to dive.
The Swifts were performing once again. There were several House Martins and the odd Swallow with them. They would come into the wind from the north, and hang in the air in front of the hide once again.
Today they were flying and hawking a lot closer to the water.
Some incredible agility to catch the flying insects.
Last Saturday I never got to the Spurgin, so I made my where there today. A surprise was this Little Egret dropping in.
When this Little Grebe was first seen it looked like it had a youngster on its back, it headed into the reeds and I wasn't able to get a definitive view. A little later it came back out and then dived and preened, so no chick, but maybe there was a nest in the reeds and the chick was there?
The female Marsh Harrier would continue its hunting along the edge of the water and over the reeds. Here it attracted attention from a Black-headed Gull.
A Common Tern came past heading to the scrapes.
The Swifts were showing well in front of the Spurgin Hide as well.
The pick of the day's Swift images.
I walked back to the Pumfrett Hide with more hope than anything else.
Like Saturday, as we moved into the afternoon the Swifts dried up and were not to be seen over the water. A welcome addition amongst the Black-headed Gulls were these two Mediterranean Gulls. If you look closely there is a little black in the primary number one indicating these are third calendar year birds and will be breeding next year.
Always look good against the dark background.
They were calling to each other as they flew over the scrape.
There were signs of some sunshine, but still a lot of cloud around. Leaving the hide I had a walk around Darter's Dip, there were blue-tailed Damselflies and quite a few Azure Damselflies.
Told from the very similar Cammon Blue by the thin blue strip towards the end of the abdomen and the black "L" shape on sections 1 and 2 of the abdomen where they meet the thorax.
With the strong wind and overcast conditions I decided to leave and like a couple of weeks ago missed something, that being a Honey Buzzard. Never mind the weather looks to be a lot better tomorrow so hopeful I can get down to what I should be doing at this time of year.
