Pennington Marsh - 23rd March

With a couple of hours to spare after dropping Tobias at school I had a wander around Pennington Marsh taking in Jetty, Butts, Fishtail and Keyhaven Lagoons. It was a bright spring like day but with a strong NW wind it was deceptively cold. Numbers of wader and wildfowl had shown a noticeable and decrease since my last visit with numbers of species such as Wigeon, Pintail and Black-tailed Godwit now into the low hundreds while I only saw 12 Pintail and no more than 50 Golden Plover. The Red-necked Grebe off the seawall is now entering summer plumage but there was no sign of the Slavonian Grebe that have wintered here. There were six Great-crested Grebe and ten Eider off shore but little else. On Jetty Lagoon there was a single Spotted Redshank still in winter plumage and two adult and a juvenile Spoonbill. As I walked along the seawall I flushed my first Wheatear of the season but only managed to obtain an arse-end view as it flew east and out of sight. At the point beside Butts Lagoon the semi-resident pair of Peregrine which seem to spend much time sitting on the shingle bar were harassing the waders. On the mudflats were around 150 Knot, 500 Dunlin and 75 Bar-tailed Godwit while a flock of around 200 Brent Goose fed in the saltmarsh on the rising tide. Keyhaven Lagoon was fairly devoid of birds but for around 40 Shelduck and two Avocet. Turning inland two Bearded Reedling were showing well in the reedbed in Butts Lagoon where they bred last year and two Chiffchaff sung from the old dump. Two Adder showed well on the south facing embankment adjacent to Butts Lagoon and there was a single crisp male along the Ancient Highway.

Bearded Reedling - Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

 Peregrine - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

 Dunlin - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

 Brent Goose - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Mistle Thrush - The Old Dump, Pennington Marsh

 Adder - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Spoonbill (adult left and juvenile) - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

 Spoonbill (juvenile) - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Peregrine - Over Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose, this is one of the few juveniles that I have seen this winter, they seemed to have had a poor breeding season in 2017 - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Coot - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Pennington Marsh - 21st February

On a bright sunny morning I had a few hours to spend at Pennington Marsh. It is sometime since I had been down to the marsh and so I was looking forward to my time here. I walked a pretty standard route taking in Butt's Lagoon, Fishtail Lagoon, Jetty Lagoon and out to Oxey Lagoon. As expected there were excellent numbers of waders and wildfowl to be seen on the falling tide with highlights being 250 Golden Plover off Pennington Lane, four Ruff, Peregrine, Marsh Harrier, the long staying Purple Sandpiper on the mudflats just east of the jetty, two Slavonian Grebe off Oxey Lagoon and also a Red-necked Grebe off Oxey Lagoon. Also just off Oxey was a seal, I didn't see it very well but I think it was a Common Seal, and a little more surprising was a recently dead Common Dolphin, see here.

After a couple of hours on the marshes I headed into the New Forest and spent an hour at Denny Wood seeing little but for the standard resident woodland species many of which were in full territorial song. A Red Kite soared overhead, still a relatively uncommon species in the forest.

Purple Sandpiper - By the jetty at Pennington Marsh

Roe Deer sporting fine fresh velvety antlers - Pennington Marsh

The Lapwing are just starting to display on the marshes - Pennington Marsh

A fine male Pintail - Pennington Marsh

Red-breasted Merganser - Oxey Lagoon

Red-breasted Merganser - Oxey Lagoon

Red-breasted Merganser - Oxey Lagoon

Red-breasted Merganser - Oxey Lagoon

Red-breasted Merganser, male displaying to the female - Oxey Lagoon

Red-necked Grebe - Off Oxey Lagoon

Slavonian Grebe - Off Oxey Lagoon

Brent Goose - Pennington Marsh

Red Kite - Over Denny Wood

Treecreeper - Denny Wood

Coal Tit - Denny Wood

Mistle Thrush - Pig Bush