Cheesefoot Head and Fishlake Meadows - 8th-9th April

Time has been very tight of late and it appears that the spring is slipping by without me being able to get into the field to enjoy the migrants arriving.

On 8th April I popped to Cheesefoot Head to the east of Winchester where two Dotterel had been present since 6th April. At times the birds had been showing well but I arrived just as the birds had flown and it took some time to relocate the birds, when they were relocated they were just about central within a large wheat field and views were distant through the heat haze. The female bird was just gaining some black on the belly and rufous on the underparts, the male was rather drab. Also here was a single singing Corn Bunting, several Yellowhammer and good numbers of Meadow Pipit and Skylark.

Distant Dotterel in the heat haze at Cheesefoot Head, the female is the left hand bird.

The Dotterel were in the middle of this large field

Cheesefoot Head

On 8th and 9th April I popped into Fishlake Meadows Hampshire Wildlife Trust reserve on the northern outskirts of Romsey. This reserve is only a few minutes from my house but I rarely visit, as previously access has been difficult away from the canal path along the eastern edge of the reserve and a path along the northern edge or one had to lurk, dubiously, behind a bus shelter to view the areas of open water. Now that the reserve has been taken over by the Trust there are hard surfaced paths and viewing screens - its really quite a pleasant reserve.

Over the couple of days that I visited I had great views of a pair of Garganey (unfortunately my camera had run out of juice), three Great White Egret, a Glossy Ibis in a pony paddock to the east of the reserve and my first Sedge Warbler (3), Reed Warbler (1), Swallow (6), House Martin (4) and Sand Martin (25) of the year. Also here were good numbers of Pochard, Shoveler, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting and Cetti's Warbler.

Great White Egret - Fishlake Meadows, Romsey

Chiffchaff - Fishlake Meadows, Romsey

Grey Wagtail - Fishlake Meadows, Romsey

Cetti's Warbler - Fishlake Meadows, Romsey

Great White Egret - Fishlake Meadows, Romsey

Glossy Ibis - Fishlake Meadows, Romsey

Pennington Marsh - 23rd August

It was a beautiful sunny and still morning at Pennington Marsh, the tide was almost high and there should have been many waders on the lagoons but it was remarkably quiet. Wildfowl numbers are still very low with perhaps 10 Shelduck, 5 Shoveler and around 12 Teal the only species recorded. The resident flock of Eider showed well off shore with 26 birds counted.

Shoveler

A juvenile Water Rail showed well along the muddy sedge bed edges where downy juvenile birds were also present indicating that the breeders successfully raised a series of broods this year.

Juvenile Water Rail

At least 15 Little Egret were present, many still carrying their summer plumes.  I watched one bird hunting for a while on Keyhaven Lagoon, the majority of prey that it caught appeared to be small prawns although it also took a fish which appeared to be a Pipefish.

Little Egret 

Wader numbers were low with around 200 Black-tailed Godwit, 10 Dunlin, 6 Ringed Plover, 12 Curlew and little else. Juvenile wader seem not to have arrived in any numbers yet and the Black-tailed Godwit flock only contained a small number of juveniles, the majority of birds being adults reaching the final stages of their moult to winter plumage.

 Black-tailed Godwit - The majority of birds are adults birds almost in winter plumage

Black-tailed Godwit - This bird is typical of those present at the site with just a scatter of rufous summer plumage feathers 

A few tern are still present in the Solent with 20 Common and 10 Sandwich Tern recorded. There were good numbers of passerine migrants present today with at least 30 Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat,15  Sedge Warbler, 10 Reed Warbler, 5 Willow Warbler, 2 Wheatear, 3 Tree Pipit and 2 Wheatear seen.

Cetti's Warbler - This juvenile showed fairly well, something pretty unusual for this species

Reed Warbler - Juvenile in Blackthorn near to Keyhaven Lagoon. This bird still showing the yellow gape.

Reed Warbler - Many of the adults looked pretty scruffy and are clearly in body moult

Sedge Warbler - A fresh juvenile bird with a Aquatic Warbler like pale centre to the crown

There were small numbers of Dragonfly on the wing with Common Darter, Ruddy Darter and Migrant Hawker seen.

Migrant Hawker - This male was patrolling the ditch along the south side of Fishtail Lagoon

A short stop at Denny Wood produced little with small numbers of Willow Warbler, a couple of Marsh Tit and 6 Stonechat the only birds of note.