Pennington Marsh and Acres Down - 25th and 29th March

The Easter weekend was fully booked with family social events and a weekend of excessive alcohol intake was on the horizon. But on Friday 25th March before joining Sarah and Tobias at our cottage in Cowley I spent the morning at Pennington Marsh and Acres Down. The morning was a beautiful sunny spring like one and I hoped to see a few summer migrants. Three Chiffchaff half-heartedly sang around the car park when I arrived and so my hopes were high. I started at Efford Lagoon where there were at least 8 Mediterranean Gull, 120 Herring Gull, 20 Great Black-backed Gull and 20 Lesser Black-backed Gull. I wandered southwards scanning Fishtail Lagoon where 12 Snipe and 3 Spotted Redshank were the highlights. I wandered to Keyhaven Lagoon where there were 3 Spoonbill and 2 more Spotted Redshank. The Long-tailed Duck was off Butts Lagoon with 6 Red-breasted Merganser and I watched the latter displaying to one another while the Long-tailed Duck bobbed around keeping his distance from the shenanigans. As the numbers of joggers and dog walkers increased I began to retreat scanning the marshes off Lower Pennington Lane where 75 Golden Plover and 5 Ruff were present along with around 150 Wigeon and Teal but only 9 Pintail - numbers of wildfowl are definitely on the rapid decline now. Not a Wheatear or hirundine to be seen.

I headed off to Acres Down but my time was running short and by the time I had navigated the traffic in Lyndhurst I only had an hour. The weather was superb, brilliant warm sunshine with good numbers of Brimstone and my first Comma of the year. Dartford Warbler and Stonechat were in song and a pair of Wood Lark foraged close to the path but heat haze prevented decent photographs. I spent some time looking for reptiles and a couple of glimpses of Common Lizard, a female Slow-worm and two Adder, a male and an almost black specimen, were good reward. It was time to go and face the bank holiday traffic on the drive to Cowley and I left Acres Down somewhat begrudgingly.

Wood Lark - Acres Down

Wood Lark - Acres Down

Fallow Deer - Acres Down

Male Adder - Acres Down

Male Adder - Acres Down

Tuesday 29th dawned early for me, this came hard after a weekend of parties and a change in the clocks to British Summertime. I completed a survey near to Marchwood and decided that I would pop to Pennington for an hour or so before heading into the office. I only had time to bird Efford Lagoon, walk out via Fishtail Lagoon and around Butts Lagoon and back to the car but this was enough in the strong and biting cold westerly wind and heavy squally showers. The Black-tailed Godwit are looking great in their chestnut summer plumage and around 75% of the 250 or so birds are now in this plumage. On Fishtail there were 8 Snipe and a single Spotted Redshank and in the channel to the east of Fishtail Lagoon were 2 summer plumage Little Grebe showing very well. I noted a steady stream of Meadow Pipit moving north and in the time I was there I estimate that around 50 birds passed overhead. At Pennington Lagoon a quick scan produced 7 Spoonbill and 4 Spotted Redshank so I wandered along for a few photos. The Spoonbill were feeding in the shallows for a while before wandering a shore for a preen and the familiar Spoonbill sleeping pose. Time was pressing on and so I headed back to the car and made for work.

Black-tailed Godwit - Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit - Pennington Marsh

Sky Lark - Pennington Marsh

Little Grebe - Fishtail Lagoon

Spotted Redshank - Pennington Lagoon

Spoonbill - Pennington Lagoon

Spoonbill - Pennington Lagoon

Pennington Marsh - 18th April

I was hoping for some spring migrants but as I parked on the corner at Lower Pennington Lane and walked west the north-east wind gave a bitter bite and I wished that I was wearing an extra coat and gloves - it was sunny but it felt far from spring like. On Pennington Marsh there were still fair numbers of Wigeon and Teal and a single female Pintail while a scan through the grassland revealed that many of the Lapwing were already incubating eggs. At the Efford Lagoon my first migrants, three Little Ringed Plover fed on the grassland around the lagoon while a Whitethroat sang from the hedgerow along the Ancient Highway with a second bird more distantly on the marsh. I walked out past the Shoveler Pools my hands turned to ice and I had to take shelter from the wind in a sheltered sunny hollow to recover them - approximately six Whitethroat sang obliviously in the Brambles and a female Marsh Harrier past east. At the jetty there was a flock of 25 Turnstone, many gaining their summer plumage with lovely chestnut upperparts and black chest markings. On Butts Lagoon a Ruff and a Spotted Redshank were again present but the Ruff was a far darker bird than that seen on 6th April and so was likely to be a different bird - it was in the same location as the bird on 6th and I at first took it to be the same bird. The distinctive call of a Sandwich Tern and there the distinctive rakish shape flying west along the Solent, my first of the year. On Fishtail Lagoon there was a nice gathering of 30 Shelduck and a lonesome looking Brent Goose while on the mudflats was a flock of 250 Dunlin, many birds now in summer plumage. I wandered onto Keyhaven Lagoon, the wind seemed to be getting colder, there was a single Common Tern, again my first of the year, patrolling the south-east corner of the lagoon and giving excellent views. I decided to call it a day and head for Denny Wood but a final scan at Efford Lagoon produced 30 Sand Martin, five House Martin and five Swallow.

My first Whitethroat of the year

Whitethroat

Female Marsh Harrier

Skylark on the old tip

Turnstone - Now developing their summer plumage with a mix of rufous feathers on the upper parts and a gradually blackening breast

Ruff - Male in the same location as bird on 6th April but apparently a different bird

Dunlin

Gadwall

Common Tern - My first of the year foraging over Keyhaven Lagoon.

 A bird that seems to have a fairly concolourous dark bill. 

Common Tern

Shelduck

Denny Wood felt positively warm, my main target here was to see if the Redstart were back and within seconds of leaving the car I heard them singing. Over the course of an hour or so I saw at least 10 birds many singing males but also a pair prospecting nesting sites, breeding was in full swing. A single Willow Warbler was singing but there were few other migrants evident and with time ticking on I needed to head for home.

Redstart - Male investigating nest hole

Redstart - On song post atop an Oak

Redstart - In full song

Marsh Tit foraging in fresh Oak leaves

Pennington Marshes - 9th March

I have not been out in the field for a while now and come Monday I was itching to get out with the reports of spring migrants, Osprey, Wheatear, Sand Martin and an Alpine Swift, scattered around the country my hopes were high for at least a Wheatear. However, over the last few days I have been knocked back with some nasty bug imported to the household by Tobias and the last weekend was spent on the settee with not even the 6-Nations to watch, it was hence quite a drag to walk around Pennington Marshes especially as the weather was so dreary with thick overcast and a strong south-westerly.

Pennington Marshes are starting to turn to spring with the sound of displaying Lapwing ringing out, Dunnock giving there somewhat undistinguished warble, Sky Lark in full melodic flow overhead and the blooming of Gorse gaining momentum. On Pennington Marsh there were at least six Ruff all still in mottled winter plumage with a further two males on Fishtail Lagoon starting to gain their summer plumage.

Ruff

Numbers of duck have shown a slight dip with, perhaps, almost a halving in numbers of Teal and Wigeon since my last visit on 4th February, the males though are looking fine. With close views I always marvel at the fine vermiculation on the flanks of Teal and Wigeon - a feature common to many of the dabbling duck.

Wigeon

Teal

The old landfill always supports one or two pairs of Sky Lark and this year appears to be no exception but with all the dogs that run across the grassland here I have no idea of how successful they are. Still, today they were singing in earnest barely taking time to come to ground.

Sky Lark

Shelduck are superb birds, almost tropical in appearance, and in the spring they become pretty feisty to boot. Today there were several groups all gathered staking out their territories. Although this appeared to be a mainly male affair the females too were involved backing up the males.

Shelduck

I had some good views of Redshank but I don't know what to say about them - they are noisy and have red legs. Nice pose though.....

Redshank

I spent a little bit of time watching a summer plumaged Cormorant feeding in Butts Lagoon. It was diving very frequently and seemed to be eating small prey items but I could never make out what it was taking, in the shot below the bird is clearly swallowing something - maybe there is an abundance of shrimp/prawns in the lagoon.

Cormorant - With its white summer head filaments

Gorse

Dunnock - I never managed to get the bird in full song but this bird was avidly singing away.

The number of gulls on Efford Lagoon is building with the spring migration but today I didn't have the energy to go through them, I made a quick scan and took a few snaps in the hope there would be a Audouin's Gull amongst them when I reviewed the images back home but it was not to be. The below shows that the gathering was made up of Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull but there were also a few Lesser Black-backed and Greater Black-backed Gull that didn't quite make the frame.

Herring and Black-headed Gulls

Herring Gulls