Saturday 7 December 2019

Pennington Marsh - 7th December

On a lovely sunny and mild December day I spent a short while wandering around Pennington Marsh. There were around 350 Brent Goose feeding on the campsite and some were very close to the southern boundary hedgerow affording good views. The flooded grassland on the marsh off Lower Pennington Lane seemed fairly devoid of birds but there was a flock of around 350 Golden Plover roosting on the grassland, three Water Pipit and two Ruff plus a scattering of Lapwing. I wandered out pass Shoveler Pools to the jetty where I scanned the solent for a while picking up a Great Northern Diver feeding at the Lymington River mouth as well as eight Red-breasted Merganser and six Great Crested Grebe. Wandering out to Fishtail Lagoon there were large numbers of Wigeon, Teal and Pintail mainly sleeping in the sunshine. I had household chores to get done and so had to head back after a brief but pleasant visit to my patch, one that I have neglected a little this year, and with an upcoming business trip/family holiday to the USA and then Christmas this is likely to be my last visit of the year.

My eBird checklist for the morning can be seen here.

Brent Goose (adult) - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Brent Goose (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Brent Goose (adult with juvenile in background) - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Brent Geese - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Brent Geese - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Ruff - Pennington Marsh

Group of Displaying Mallard - Pennington Marsh

Video of Mallard displaying on Butts Lagoon, I still have not perfected the focus or keeping the camera steady or panning smoothly!

 Wigeon - Pennington Marsh

Dunlin - Pennington Marsh

Wigeon - Pennington Marsh

Wigeon - Pennington Marsh

Wigeon - Pennington Marsh

Wigeon - Pennington Marsh

Wigeon feeding on grassland beside Fishtail Lagoon

Kestrel - Pennington Marsh