Tobias returned to school today after his Christmas break and I took the opportunity, after drop off, to have a quick wander at Pennington Marsh. It was a glorious sunny and mild winters day and it was a pleasure to be out and about. I stopped at the corner at Lower Pennington Lane and scanned the marshes, much of the water was frozen and there were relatively few birds but a flock of around 250 Golden Plover were resplendent in the mornings sunshine. Otherwise, there were around 18 Common Snipe, 150 Lapwing and a handful of Shoveler, Teal and Wigeon but not a lot else. I then wandered out to the sea wall where scanning to sea produced six Red-breasted Merganser and a similar number of Eider. Walking west along the seawall there were good numbers of wildfowl on the lagoons with many of the Teal and Pintail displaying in the sunshine and the Wigeon whistling away. At Fishtail Lagoon I paused and scanned the masses of wildfowl present, many of the birds seemed to be sleeping and soaking up the sunshine, a welcome break from a long series of overcast and rather chilly days. There were at least ten Reed Bunting in the bushes, the males just starting to show a hint of their summer plumage as the duller winter feather fringes wear away to reveal their brighter basal colouration which forms their breeding plumage. At Keyhaven Lagoon there were around 30 Tufted Duck and a similar number of Coot and after a bit of a scan I located the 1st winter male Scaup which has been present since 29th December. The bird was initially asleep but showing at fairly close range but after a few minutes it awoke and began to feed, the sullied flanks and pale scaling on the breast and rump/ventral area identifying the bird as a first winter. This was a site tick for me, not bad for the first visit of the year. The time was ticking on and I needed to get into the office, a quick scan of Efford Lagoon produced little but a Chiffchaff was calling and showed briefly in the car park.
1st winter male Greater Scaup with Tufted Duck - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
1st winter male Greater Scaup - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
1st winter male Greater Scaup - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Eurasian Wigeon - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Northern Pintail - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Reed Bunting - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Reed Bunting - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Eurasian Bullfinch - Lower Pennington Lane Car Park, Pennington Marsh
