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

Pennington Marsh - 6th August

It was a beautiful sunny morning for a change, August has been a very unsettled month to date with long spells of often heavy rain and low temperatures. I was up early and decided on a walk around Pennington Marshes for a few hours. Arriving at 06:30 I first walked along the Ancient Highway for a few hundred metres and then to the coast via Shoveler Pools, Jetty Lagoon, Butts Lagoon then to Keyhaven Lagoon and back to the car. It was high tide at 08:55 and I expected good numbers of waders on the pools but due to the high water levels these were rather devoid of bird activity. There were many warblers in the bushes and much of my time was spent with these. Totals for the morning were as follows:

Sedge Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Sedge Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Sedge Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Sedge Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Sedge Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Sedge Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Reed Bunting (female) - Pennington Marsh

Reed Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Reed Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Whitethroat (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Wheatear (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Wheatear (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit - Pennington Marsh

Reed Bunting, a worn adult male - Pennington Marsh

Red-breasted Merganser - Pennington Marsh

Red-breasted Merganser - Pennington Marsh

Avocet (adult) - Pennington Marsh

Avocet (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Avocet - Pennington Marsh

Willow Warbler (juvenile) - Pennington Marsh

Little Egret - Pennington Marsh

The Mornings Totals

Teal - 2
Red-breasted Merganser - 1
Water Rail - 2
Avocet - 3
Black-tailed Godwit - 12
Whimbrel - 1
Greenshank - 2
Turnstone - 66
Dunlin - 260
Common Sandpiper - 2
Grey Plover - 72
Snipe - 7
Common Tern - 51
Sandwich Tern - 4
Sand Martin - 15
Swift - 4
Bearded Reedling - 4
Wheatear - 5
Whitethroat - 9
Sedge Warbler - 7
Reed Warbler - 8
Chiffchaff - 4
Willow Warbler - 6

Newtown Harbour, Isle of Wight - 30th December 2014

Sarah, Tobias and I were on the Isle of Wight catching up with family on 29th and 30th December and I popped out to Newtown Harbour on the morning of 30th for a little birding in the lovely sunny but cold conditions. I was up at 07:00 and the temperature was -3c, it was an extremely treacherous drive to Newtown from Chale Green as hardly any of the roads seemed to have been gritted. As I drove slowly along the Military Road, which extends alone much of the south-west coast of the island, a ring-tailed Hen Harrier flew across the road in front of me between Whale Chine and Atherfield Coastguard Cottages. I stopped and watched as it hunted the fields and then a female Merlin chased low across the fields heading towards the cliff. With this early morning luck I pushed on to Newtown.

Causeway Lake was largely frozen and other than a few hardy Teal, Wigeon and Pintail there was little to be seen so I headed around to Newtown Quay and walked out to the boathouse and saltpans. I spend the next hour enjoying a splendid sunrise and watching birds moving to newly exposed mud as the tide dropped. The usual selection of estuary birds was present with numbers of Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Knot (35), Curlew, Grey Plover, Redshank and a single Greenshank heard. Numbers of wildfowl seemed to be fairly low but many of the Brent Geese were feeding towards Shalfleet Quay and largely not visible from Newtown Quay, I suspect that this is where many of the Wigeon, Teal and Shelduck were also feeding. Many of the photographs I took today were taken from the north wall of the saltpans and were of birds flying from the east to feeding areas in the west of the harbour.

Newtown - Sunrise over the saltpans

View from north wall of saltpans looking east

Red-breasted Merganser - Female just off the saltpans

Red-breasted Merganser - Male just off the saltpans

Red-breasted Merganser - Male displaying to female on saltpans

Red-breasted Merganser - Male on the saltpans, there were four birds in total

Brent Geese

Brent Geese - Moving to feed on the mudflats as the tide dropped

Brent Goose

Shelduck - Male

Pintail - Distinctive elongate shape of this duck readily visible in this skein

Curlew

Curlew

Grey Plover

Grey Plover

Redshank

Dunlin

Dunlin