The Deskbound Birder: Little Ringed Plover

Showing posts with label Little Ringed Plover. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 July 2020

Pennington Marsh - 18th July

My birding has been at a very low ebb of late, the Covid-19 lockdown saw my birding turn to a deskbased project to enter my bird records into eBird, a project to which I have become somewhat addicted, adding UK records from back as far as 1987 and now having entered my foreign trips and their associated photos back almost to 2010. Its truly fantastic to have my records, photographs and sound recordings all at my fingertips in one place rather than scattered through various notebooks and digital forums (such as this blog); although I still have a fair way to go to completion. eBird will now be my main forum for recording my sightings with a summary added to my blog.

The current Bearded Vulture in the Peaks of Derbyshire had me planning a twitch, but on the day before my planned visit I had heard that some selfish idots had pitched themselves on the cliff above the birds roost thereby detering it from coming in that evening, in addition the weather forecast was not favourable with fog and drizzle and so I cancelled. I have to say my motivation to drive four hours and then walk another 1.5 hours or so was fairly low since I have seen the species on multiple occasions arround the World and, at times, almost within touching distance.

Come the 18th July the weather forecast was good and I decided I would be more modest in a birding outing and so headed down to Pennington Marsh and walked a familiar loop out past Shoveler Pools back west to Keyhaven Lagoon and back east along the seawall before finally checking Efford Lagoon. Given that it was mid-July I had not expected a great deal but it was nice to be out on such a fine sunny morning. I arrived at 06:30 and as the tide was coming in and high at 11:07 I expected a few waders. Four Greenshank flying north over the car park on my arrival was a good sign but thereafter the wader highlights were a meagre 45 Dunlin, four Turnstone, 12 Ringed Plover and five Little Ringed Plover. There was, for example, not a single Black-tailed Godwit to be seen. There were no wildfowl, save for Mallard and Shelduck to be seen although two Goosander on the sea were somewhat of a surprise. The only hints of some migration were a single Yellow Wagtail flying west and a 1st year Wheatear along the coastal path. I headed home at just before 09:00 pleased with my mornings birding despite the lack of an obvious highlight.

My eBird checklist for the morning can be viewed here.

Little Egret fishing on Jetty Lagoon - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Little Ringed Plover on Fishtail Lagoon - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Juvenile Redshank on Fishtail Lagoon, these juvenile birds are responsible for a lot of claims of Wood Sandpiper at this site in July - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Oystercatcher with an Annelid Worm - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Saturday, 20 July 2019

Various Things- May to July 2019

For Sarah and I it has been a frantic late spring and early part of the summer, the completion of the sale of our business has taken over our lives and between dealing with this and trying to keep on top of work there has been little or no time to get out and about. Here, in summary, are a few things I have done this year between late May and late July.

A stay at our cottage in the Cotswolds for a weekend allowed me a rare moment of moth trapping. There was nothing exceptional in the trap in the morning but the following were of interest.

Treble Lines showing variation in the markings - Cowley, Cheltenham

Purple Bar, a common and widespread species that feeds on Bedstraws - Cowley, Cheltenham

White-spotted Pinion - Cowley, Cheltenham

Yellow-barred Brindle, a localised species feeding on species such as Holly, Ivy and Privet - Cowley, Cheltenham

Small Elepant Hawk-moth - Cowley, Cheltenham

Green Silver-lines - Cowley, Cheltenham

Gold Spot - Cowley, Cheltenham

Miller - Cowley, Cheltenham

Poplar Hawk-moth - Cowley, Cheltenham

Yellow Shell - Cowley, Cheltenham

June was a very wet and windy month and so curtailed most of my invertebrate survey work and I popped down to Pennington Marsh on a couple of occasions in windy and often wet conditions.

Shelduck brood and an incubating Avocet - Pennington Marsh

Shelduck chicks - Pennington Marsh

Avocet and Little Ringed Plover - Pennington Marsh

Avocet and chicks - Pennington Marsh

Well grown Avocet chick taken on the same day as the above image reflecting the extended breeding period of the species - Pennington Marsh

Little Ringed Plover - Pennington Marsh

Juvenile Sand Martin resting from the winds and rains - Pennington Marsh

Juvenile Sand Martin - Pennington Marsh

Redshank - Pennington Marsh

Hunting Little Egret - Pennington Marsh

Returning and non-breeding Black-tailed Godwit - Pennington Marsh

Much of my summer work has been dominated by invertebrate surveys with Adam Wright along the A358 in Taunton, Portsmouth Water sites in Hampshire and West Sussex and along the A417 in Gloucestershire. Here are a few images of some of the more interesting species we have recorded.

The Marsh Fly (a Snail-killing Fly) Coremacera marginata - Portsdown hill, Fareham

During the late June and July I recorded Downland Villa at two sites three sites in the Cotswolds and one near to Droxford in Hampshire. This previously very rare species has been making a comeback in recent years with a series of sites being found in the Cotswolds and southwards into Dorset and Hampshire.

The hoverfly Parhelophilus frutetorum - Taunton

White-legged Damselfly - Taunton

The spider Misumena vatia with prey and the beetle Oedemera nobilis, the spider has captured the fly on hogweed and the beetle is perched on the back of the spider - Taunton

The Click-beetle Agrypus murinus - Near to Arundel

The Nationally Scarce bee Osmia bicolor - Birdlip, Gloucestershire

The Nationally Scarce bee Hylaeus signatus - Portsdown Hill, Hampshire

Female Red-backed Shrike self-found during an invertebrate survey at Birdlip, Gloucestershire on 26th June. There have been five records of this species in Gloucestershire since 1971 all of which have been day birds.

Common Broomrape - Portsdown Hill, Hampshire

Lizard Orchid at a site near to Arundel, West Sussex

Fly Orchid at a site near to Arundel, West Sussex

Bee Orchid at a site near to Arundel, West Sussex

Common Spotted Orchid at a site near to Arundel, West Sussex

Pyramidal Orchid at a site near to Arundel, West Sussex

A short trip to Noar Hill Nature Reserve near to Selbourne in Hampshire on 24th June produced a few nice orchid species.

Common Twayblade - Noar Hill NNR, Hampshire

Common Fragrant Orchid - Noar Hill NNR, Hampshire

White form of Common Fragrant Orchid - Noar Hill NNR, Hampshire

Musk Orchid - Noar Hill NNR, Hampshire

After much searching I eventually found a single Frog Orchid

- Noar Hill NNR, Hampshire

The Nationally Scarce plant Dragon's-teeth - Noar Hill NNR, Hampshire

Knapweed Broomrape - Noar Hill NNR, Hampshire

I recorded a few of the Horsefly Chrysops caecutiens in my garden - Romsey, Hampshire

This year I eventually managed to get around to buying a set of Clearwing pheromone lures and while a took them to a few sites with me, surprisingly, my moderately urban garden in Romsey produced the greatest range of species most of which are new for me.