18th February - Lower Test Marshes and Redbridge Wharf, Hampshire

Leaving Acres Down, we were now heading for the site that had been the intended destination when I set off first thing this morning, the Lower Test Marshes reserve in Totton.  I have to admit this is not one of my favourite places, you can put a lot of effort in for very little return, Ian and I can recall many visits here that follow that theme, on one the football score were the highlight of our visit.

never the less we were open minded as we sett off along the path that crosses the Test and opens out to the marshes and a boardwalk.  It didn't take long though for the pessimism to kick in as we walked along the boardwalk.  Wren could be heard and one or two could be seen disappearing under the boardwalk itself.

Long-tailed Tits and Goldcrest could be heard in the bushes, but aside from a few crows very little else.  We scanned the electricity pylons, that tower over the marshes, in hope of possibly a Peregrine that may be perched amongst the grey metal, but there was no luck.

It was our intention to walk a loop, heading out towards the railway line and then taking in the Redbridge Wharf park and crossing the river to return on the western side.  As we walked parallel to the railway line a Great Egret flew across the reed bed, a little later a female Marsh Harrier could be seen quartering the reeds.

But that was to be the birding highlight as we left the reserve and made our way to the flyover and junction to the M271 and A35.  We crossed and then walked to Redbridge railways station, we crossed the railway and the path then leads onto a small park that runs alongside the Test estuary, the tide was high, a double high tide today.  We were here for a second calendar year Iceland Gull that had been present for over a week, apparently showing very well amongst all the other gulls present.  The last time I had seen an Iceland Gull in Hampshire was a similar aged bird back in early February 2018 along Lyemore Lane outside Lymington.

We were greeted as we reached the water front with a very high tide and what gulls present we on the other side of the channel!

With the walk we had taken we decided not to lump a scope and tripod, but at this moment in time I wished we had.  Fortunately there were benches so we sat down and started scanning and photographing to dismiss what might have looked like contenders.

A Harbour or Common Seal appeared much to our surprise and then duly disappeared again, much as seals seems to do.

A point in our favour was the fact that the tide was falling and it wasn't long until low tide.  This seemed to energise the gulls into moving and a lot of large gulls, mostly immature Herring Gulls could be seen bathing in the water.

Several gulls could be seen coming up Southampton Water towards us.  This adult Great Black-backed gull looked very smart on the posts, it also seemed to attract attention from the immature Herring Gulls that appeared to want to take it on, they didn't succeed.

There were also a lot of small gulls, notably Black-headed but also a few Common Gulls too.

The Harbour Seal then appeared, this time almost below us and it seemed as interested in us as we were in it.

The Harbour or Common Seal can be distinguished from the Grey Seal by its smaller size and shorter head with a more concave forehead. Common Seals have V-shaped nostrils. They are very variable in colour, from blonde to black, but generally grey with dark spots.

The seals whiskers are very clear here and they play an important part in the seal's hunting ability.  A seal has highly sensitive whiskers that enable them to hunt effectively even in poor visual conditions. Their specially shaped whiskers can detect the disturbances left by other creatures moving through the water, even while they are moving themselves.

If you’re a seal, finding food can be a challenge. Harbour seals, for example, live in coastal waters that can get heavily churned up by tides and storms. This makes the water very murky and it can be hard for the seal to see its prey.

These thick wiry hairs are packed with nerve endings at the base, making them very sensitive to any movement. While whiskers can be used to touch and examine something, a marine animal like a seal can also detect vibrations in the water.

When tracking underwater vibrations, the seal pulls its whiskers erect so that they are held away from it face. A swimming fish causes swirling disturbances in the water. A seal's whiskers can detect these hydrodynamic trails and track the fish's path, giving the seal the direction of the fish, distance from the fish and even an indication of the fish's size.

The seal slipped under the water and we never saw it again.

The weather was taking a turn for the worst, it wasn't heavy rain but annoying drizzle and you see the mist rolling in from up river.  We had been here for about an hour and if it hadn't been for the benches and lunch I wonder if we may have given up.  But now the tide was falling and the gulls were spread out over the water.

I scanned the shore on the other side of the water once again, but this time something stood out.  I had mentioned to Ian that we were looking for something more akin in colour to the Mute Swan that was present, a little more creamy than white, the immature Herring Gulls we were looking at were more brown.  But on the shore was a creamy looking gull.

It was the second calendar year Iceland Gull and it was searching the tide line for any sign of food.  You can see how completely different it looks.

The previous bird at Keyhaven was feeding with Black-headed Gulls in a field and I never saw it fly so I was really pleased when this one took off.  It flew from the shore across the water o an area that was being exposed by the falling tide.

The Iceland gull is a medium-sized gull that breeds in the Arctic regions of Canada and Greenland, but not in Iceland (as its name suggests), where it is only seen during winter. 

It is migratory, wintering from in the North Atlantic as far south as the British Isles and northernmost states of the eastern United States, as well as in the interior of North America as far west as the western Great Lakes. 

It was back up in the air once more, showing the beige to white wings and tail.

First winter / second calendar year Iceland Gulls are a very distinct coffee-brown colour all over with white or beige wing tips. The bill is comparatively short and dark with a pale pinkish base. In many birds, the brown tends to fade towards white in the course of the winter

Here was a very good opportunity to compare the similarly sized immature Herring Gull, seen together there is no issue in identification.

Off again.

The Iceland Gull has been a headache for taxonomists. It is divided into three subspecies, one of which (Thayer’s Gull) was considered a separate species until 2017. 

The main difference between the Iceland, Kumlien’s, and Thayer’s subspecies lies in how dark the wingtips are in adults. Some western birds (Thayer’s) have fully dark wingtips; others in eastern Canada and Greenland (Iceland or "glaucoides" subspecies) can have fully white wingtips, and there’s lots of variation in between.

It was then flying once more, this time passing quite close to us.

Then turned and headed across to one of the exposed mud flats in the centre of the channel.

I was really pleased to have seen the gull, it is a very smart looking gull, we don't get that many white-winged gulls here in Hampshire, so this was a treat.  After the Sabine's, then this Iceland, what is next?

With the Iceland Gull seemingly intent to stay on the mud we decided it was time to finish our walk, this meant crossing the railway bridge once more and navigating our way through the housing estate and the traffic around the flyover.  Finally on the bridge we scanned the river sides for anything but could only find a pair of Little Grebe. 

After crossing the river there was a good number of Wigeon grazing on the marsh.

We walked back through the reserve, following the boardwalk, looking all the time for possible Water Pipit, which we never saw.  We came across the hide which was for some reason locked, so continued all the way back to the bridge over the river.  We decided to walk out onto the main marsh boardwalk one more time.  A single Little Egret flew across in front of us.

And a Grey Wagtail was flushed from the pool of water close to the hedgerow.  We could see the mist and drizzle closing in so we decided not to walk any further and turned back.  After crossing the bridge I decided to check once more the electricity pylons, first those on the south side.  This was what I saw (just love the patterns created by the wires and pylons

Zooming in the view was a little clearer, unmistakably a Peregrine perched on the pylon.

We decided to see how close we could get and if we could get a clearer view.  We headed back along the boardwalk  and reached a position where it was possible to get a clear view.

It looks from the size to be a male

Was it looking directly at us?

A magnificent bird in a very industrial environment.

It was an unexpected end to a day that had delivered well above expectations

18th February - Acres Down, The New Forest, Hampshire

The plans were set on the previous day, we would meet at the Lower Test Marshes, however as I set off, the forecast for heavy cloud and fresh winds looked a long way from the conditions I could see.  There were clear patches in the sky away to the south and east and it quite calm.  A quick call to Ian and we changed the plans and met in the car park at Acres Down in the new Forest.  Getting out of the car a Song Thrush was in full song from one of the close trees.

We set off down the main track with more Song Thrushes singing.  As we reached the bend we could hear woodpeckers drumming and right in front of us a Green Woodpecker was sat at the top of one of the dead trees.

It was joined by a Great Spotted Woodpecker before both flew off.  As nice as these two were it was the smallest woodpecker that we were here to find.  We could hear one drumming close by and had a brief view of one as it flew through the trees, only to disappear.  We walked to the spot where you can view the dead tree that a lesser Spotted Woodpecker apparently appears on, but after a wait it didn't and the surrounding area had gone quiet.

We decided to walk up on to the down, there were other spots that we knew and we considered we would have just as much chance at these. We headed back towards the car park and then up the slope to access the footpath to the down.

Coming out of the small copse a couple of Redwing flew past, a little further along and we could hear the song of the Woodlark.  It was singing somewhere above us and it took awhile to find it in the ash white sky.  Eventually we locked on to it but it was very high.  More song came from the direction of the gorse and as I walked to see if I could find the owner the singing lark above our heads started to drop and eventually landed quite conveniently not too far in front of us.  We were able to use the gorse bushes as cover to get quite close as it foraged amongst the heath.

A secretive bird. The Woodlark favours open, dry habitats with short grasses. It can be seen all year-round but is most notable in February and March, which is when we make the pilgrimage here to secure the year tick for another year

Mostly, it is a resident bird, feeding on seeds and insects, but does move to farmland stubbles for the autumn and early winter. Woodlark usually nest within a grassy tussock or heather bush, often digging a shallow scrape. Scattered trees and woodland edges are used as song or lookout posts.

The Woodlark is stripy brown, with a buff-white eye-stripe and a spikey crest on its head. It has an oddly short tail and a bouncing flight pattern. The similar skylark is larger, with a longer tail, and prefers farmland and grassland habitats.

The male Woodlark has a song flight similar to that of the Skylark but flutters more as he rises and spirals upwards, circling the ground as he sings at a fairly constant height. Both male and female birds will also sing from the ground or a perch

As we were able to get quite close to the bird, these are some of the best photographs I have taken of a Woodlark, so there is always a reason for coming back every year.

We headed around the copse over the heath, disturbing more Woodlark, there were at least four pairs seen.  At the bottom of the valley the footpath leads all the way down to the main path, this is one of the areas we have seen Lesser Spotted Woodpecker before, but today there was no sight or sound of any.  There was though at least three Hawfinch at the top of the trees.

We walked down the hill to meet the track that runs from Millyford Bridge to Holmhill and Highland Water inclosures.

There was not a lot of bird song about, Robins could be heard and the calls of Coal Tit, but every so often there would be a snippet of Firecrest, usually coming from the holly bushes along the track.

One bird showed quite well, but as usual it was hard to pin down as it buzzed around amongst the leaves.

A little further along there was a Roe Deer buck, which was sporting a lovely pair of velvet covered antlers, close to the path and not bothered by our presence at all.

Antlers are dropped, or cast, and grow back over a period of months while covered in a furry skin called velvet. When growth is complete the velvet is rubbed off and the antler is described as clean. Older animals tend to cast and clean their antlers first.

Roe Deer cast their antlers in the early winter, November or December.  Their new antlers grow back from January, when they are covered in velvet as can be seen on this buck.  The velvet is shed from April onwards, when the antlers are known as clean.

Another site for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is where the path splits, there are several dead trees here, mainly birch, and we were lucky to find a female at the top of one such tree.

These birds have a black and white head, the male, unlike this bird here , having a bright red. They have a short and powerful beak, black wings with white bars on the back and a white breast with dark streaks.

Lesser spotted woodpeckers are small birds, roughly the same size as a sparrow.

The lesser spotted woodpecker is a mature-woodland specialist, relying on the old, dead and rotting trees found in this habitat. It may also occur in parks and orchards which have a sufficient number of old trees. This species is rare, with the greatest numbers found in southern England, and scattered populations in Wales and further north. It is absent from Scotland and Ireland.

A secretive tree-top dweller. The lesser spotted is our smallest, and rarest, woodpecker. These woodland specialists are one of the UK’s fastest-declining bird species.

The lesser spotted woodpecker population is estimated to have fallen by 83% since 1970, with no more than 2,000 pairs thought to be left in the UK. The ongoing loss of ancient and mature woodland is thought to be a key factor in this decline.

The removal of dead and rotting wood may have also had an impact. The lesser spotted woodpecker may have been affected by the growing great spotted woodpecker population too. 

It was then away across the tree tops with an undulating flight, characteristic of all woodpeckers.

A little further along we stopped for another singing Firecrest, this one didn't show but there was a flock of Long-tailed Tits and these showed very well as they moved through the branches.

Long-tailed tits are very small birds, typically less than half the weight of a robin. They have a fluffy pale-pinkish breast, dark wings, a short beak and, of course, a long tail.

Despite their name, Long-tailed Tits are not closely related to the tit family (Paridae), which includes the blue tit, great tit and others.

The long-tailed tit population is doing well and is thought to have roughly doubled since the 1970s

We headed down the track towards the Highland Water inclosure. Just before reaching the stream itself there has always been a dead tree, probably and old oak at the meeting of the two paths.  Time and storms though has finally taken its toll on the old tree with a lot of the dead boughs now having been broken off.

I love looking at the meanders of the stream here, very tight there are also several examples of dried up Ox Bow lakes.  I stomped across one of these to get a little closer to a Grey Wagtail that was along the edge of the stream.

Several Marsh Tit could be heard singing in the oak trees above, but we only managed to see this one as it was pecking furiously amongst the moss on the branch.

WE headed back uphill to the car park and the morning was completed when two Crossbill flew over calling, we had managed to get all the Forest specialties other than Goshawk on a morning when we only decided to change plans and come to Acres Down.  It was now time for something to eat and then to move on.