13th February - Hayling Island, Hampshire

There has been a Snow Bunting at East Head on the Selsey Peninsula for quite a while but in the last few weeks one has been appearing at Black Point on Hayling Island.  It was reported yesterday while I was watching Bittern and Otter, so I decided to go this morning to try and catch up with it

Leaving Four Marks it was quite thick fog and this did not clear until coming down from Butser Hill on the A3.  I made my way to the Sandy Point area and then walked around the promenade.  The tide was falling but the sea was quite rough with quite a large swell.  Cormorants were perched on the groyne markers, with waves breaking behind them.

On the water just offshore was an immature Shag.

The Snow Bunting had been present along the causeway that leads from the Lifeboat station to the Sailing Club.  I walked the area but could find anything other than two Linnets amongst the grass on the dunes on each side of the path.

It seems the Snow Bunting commutes across the channel to the East Head Area in West Sussex.  It also seems it does this in the afternoon.  Yesterday it was seen flying back.  Nevertheless I decided to walk around Black Point, the tide now well out and it was possible to walk the beach.

Coming around the point there were two Sanderling on the tide line and I couldn't resist them.

A dog came close but the Sanderling didn't seem concerned and stood their ground.

Scampering away along the tide line.

Finally managing to catch one with both legs off the beach.

I just waited and they came towards me.

Walking back around the beach the waves were impressive out in the channel.

Brent Geese flying across the channel

I stood around and waited but there wasn't any show.  There was a distant Great Northern Diver in the channel, too far for the camera.

With rain coming I decided to walk back to the car and drive around to Northney.  The Cattle Egret that have been found at Warblington have moved away.  This is due to the lack of cattle at Warblington and a large herd at Northney Farm.  I parked in the tea room car park and watched as Mediterranean Gulls called and flew over and they a flock of Cattle Egrets.

Seven at first.

The flock increased with thirteen.  There have been reports of over fifty!

I went back to Black Point and did another circuit out on the water there were five distant Great Northern Divers and four Slavonian Grebes.  However this was an afternoon that the Snow Bunting decided not to commute across the water.  Never mind, there may still be time to get it another day.

5th February - Southsea Castle, Hampshire

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.

Rest In Peace Boycie X