29th January - Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

It was a misty morning after a clear night, but as I drove south the sun was breaking through, albeit with quite a bit of cloud still around.  I was Titchfield once again, but today I expected it to be a little different following the heavy rains of the last few days.  As I walked around the sea wall the river was high and with it being high tide there was nowhere for the water to go.

There was some beach and on the edge of the water there was a small group of Sanderling.  There had been someone on the beach behind the sailing club so they had probably been flushed from usual roost at high tide.

Sanderling on the beach, I couldn't resist them.  As I stepped down on to the beach I noticed that the steps that were recently covered by the shingle were now completely free, there must have been some tides.

So back to the Sanderling, hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

My favourite.

I dragged myself away from the Sanderling and waded through the water to Meon Shore hide and was greeted with this.

No central causeway, the north and south scrapes now combined into one large lake!  I don't recall ever seeing it like this before.  There were Canada Geese around the reeds and duck on the ground underneath the Pumfrett hide, so I walked around there.

The light wasn't brilliant but there was a drake Gadwall at rest just under the hide.

And the amusing sight of a Pied Wagtail surfing on the floating vegetation in the water.

I left the Pumfrett and head on to the Spurgin.  It was flooded but not to the same degree as the scrapes.

The Lapwing were constantly going up from the direction of the meadow and Frying Pan, but without any sign of a raptor to spook them.  I eventually saw a couple of Marsh Harriers, both female types, but they stayed around the Frying Pan area.  I heard the "pings" of Bearded Tits but didn't see them, then a Buzzard came over the the hide and headed off towards the meadow.

Enjoying the wind.

The Coot were the only water birds present and they were not getting on with each other.

A huge mixed flock of Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwits took off along with gulls and there were Teal flying past towards the scrapes.  Once again I couldn't see any raptor, but the melee must have spooked the Glossy Ibis and I saw two birds flying around and eventually dropping in the area of the Meadow Hide.

As a result I decided to walk around to the east side and to see what was going on in the meadow.  The water had receded from the path and it was easier to get around.  The tide was a little lower and out off the Rainbow Bar was a small group of Eider.

The wind was fresh and from the south east and the sea was quite choppy, hiding the Eider behind the waves.

Walking along the board walk there was the familiar call of a Great Spotted Woodpecker and I watched as it flew on to a very thin branch at the top of one of the willows.

Shows the grip of the claws on the branch.

I walked to the Meadow Hide where there were many Lapwing and it was also quite busy with Canada and Egyptian Geese.  Out towards the Duck Bay there were at least four Glossy Ibis on the pile of dead reeds, unfortunately just a little too far away.  I think the fifth was away to the left lower down.

Several of the crows around the reserve show some forms of leucism, but it only shows in flight.  I have seen them mobbing the Marsh Harriers at distance so it was nice to get this one closer and to be able to see the extent of the leucism which appears to be in the secondary flight feathers and the tail.

Plenty of Starling out on the meadow, frequently taking to a "bait ball" when the Lapwing took off.

With no dry land on the scrapes, the Oystercatchers were using the meadow to see out the high tide.  the regular leucistic Oystercatcher with them.

A fly past from the Black-tailed Godwits.

An uniquely I was able to capture the entire flock of 96 Black-tailed Godwits

Calls from the west side signalled the arrival of two Raven that came across the meadow and disappeared into the trees behind the Knight's Bank hide.

THe Lapwing were settling on the edge of a flooded area and for some reason I thought I would count them as I made my way through them I realised that there was a single Golden Plover amongst them.

Then when flushed it took off with them.

It returned but was soon off with them again.  It was quite easy to pick out amongst the Lapwing, the colour and shape distinctive.

Ian had joined me by now and there were at least four female type Marsh Harriers away to the north and a single male, but hey never really came close. Looking north the trees looked spectacular with just a little bit of the last rays of sunshine.

The leucistic Oystercatcher decided to come closer to the hide, showing the extent of the white plumage.

but a Buzzard surprised us as it came across the meadow and appeared to be trying to hunt the Lapwing without any success.

The Glossy Ibis had left while I was watching the Golden Plover and I could see where, but after another huge Lapwing spooking they appeared and started to drop back into the area close to Duck Bay.  The unmistakeable silhouette in flight.

This time all five visible.

All back together and in good view.

My parking was up and so was the light, it was also getting a lot colder so we left the hide and walked back to the car.  The rain has changed the dynamic of the reserve and it will be interesting to see what this means for the bird life over the next few weeks.  For the first time in three years I will be in the country for most of February, I hope I don't regret it.

24th October - Farlington Marshes, Hampshire

I hadn't been for a while and was hoping that things might have started to look a little different from my last visit to Farlington.  I couldn't get there until after lunch, but it was a nice sunny afternoon with a fresh south west wind.  I set off across the marsh towards the stream, the going was wet, but not as wet as it was beyond the white wooden markers.

A little further along, at the view point and bench, a view of the stream heading towards to Information Hut.

A Grey Heron hunting amongst the dead reeds.

As I walked on another Grey Heron flew across my path and then past me.

On the pool behind the information hut, a smart male Gadwall.

The reeds behind the hut were still looking healthy which has to be a good sign for any Bearded Tit population.  The marshes themselves were quiet, no large flocks of Brent Geese yet.

A Meadow Pipit flew up from the grass on to a fence post.  It was a nice pose, but when I got home I realised that the pipit was in fact ringed.

This bird was ringed by Duncan Bell at the Farlington a few years ago. Unfortunately the exercise was not registered as a scheme, but just put a few rings on birds to see if it was worth starting one. Sadly there is no record which colour ring was put on which bird, so it is not possible to assign to an individual ring number.  The bird was seen in February 2023.  The intent of the scheme was to see if these birds were resident or just winter visitors.  The jury is still out on that.

I walked up on to the sea wall and there was quite a good sized Starling flock over the saltmarsh.

Walking on a white, long-legged bird was amongst the grazing cattle, surely a Cattle Egret?  No it turned out to be a Little Egret feeding very much like a Cattle Egret.

The tide was out but rising.  In the main channel were at least twelve Great Crested Grebes.  On the mud several Curlew and a few Grey Plover.

Knot, Dunlin and Ringed Plover were out on the mud.

There was also at least six Harbour Seals hauled out on the mud.

I walked around towards the Lake, getting closer the impact of the broken sluice was very clear.  Here a new wader and duck roost on a pool behind the reeds, distant and impossible to view.

Here you can see the extent of the water, that has created a large lake.

My first Great Egret here at Farlington, feeding in the new flooded area.

The tide was rising and there were several Curlew still out on the mud.

A view of the lake standing over the broken sluice.

There were not many duck on the lake, but there were several Wigeon and these Pintail close to the dead reeds.

A Wigeon, unusually close to the sea wall.

I crossed the field and headed to the stream in the hope of finding some more duck.  A pair of Pintail flew over head.

Another Pintail on the edge of the dead reeds.

Common Gulls are one of my favourite gulls, they have a very kind appearance.  There were two on the lake.

Then a few Wigeon were moving, this one dropping on to the stream.

And a few Shoveler flying past.

Then some more Wigeon, this group of four flying around the stream.

Then joined by two more.

A close up.

Then all hell broke loose, I was about to head home when all the duck went up.  A Tractor was cutting at the back of the reeds and flushed all the birds on the new roost site I showed earlier.  I stopped and took advantage.  Pintail

Then Black-tailed Godwits.

Shoveler too.

An immature Peregrine appeared to try and take advantage of the chaos.  Not the best photo, but a record of the bird.

Redshank appeared flying low around me over the stream.

Finally looking to settle on the bank.

I then noticed a smart drake pintail on the water.  With the water close to the markers I was able to get close and also able to get low on the bird.

The sun then came out and enhanced the colour in the water and the surrounding reeds.

The Shoveler standing out as well.

The Pintail finally took off again with a lovely dark sky background.

I thought this afternoon was going to be a disappointing visit, as I walked past the Lake I was quite depressed by the conditions, but it was very nice to finally find significant number of duck.  Hopefully the winter will find the conditions here conducive to some good numbers of wildfowl, maybe some wild geese, that would be nice.