Keyhaven and Pennington Marsh 5th October

Its been two weeks since I was at the patch and with a free morning I was up at 06:00 and heading for a stroll on the marshes. The first noticeable frost of the winter had settled and it was a beautiful sunny dawn, the mist lingered over the grazing marsh and I stopped for a coffee on the Lower Pennington Lane corner to enjoy the view and take some snaps:

Dawn over Pennington Marshes

I then strolled along the lane and down the Ancient Highway spending some time looking over Efford Lagoon which while I have been away has been landscaped and partly planted. Its looking good. There was a small gathering of gulls including 35 Black-headed Gull, an adult Common Gull, a single 1st winter Great Black-backed Gull and six Herring Gull. There was an abundance of 'Alba' Wagtails with around 40 birds on the bare soils beside the lagoon. Around 50 Wigeon and 10 Gadwall had gathered on the lagoon.

Common and Black-headed Gulls

First winter Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull and Pied Wagtail

I continued walking the Ancient Highway, there were good numbers of Chiffchaff in the hedgerows, probably around 15 in total, as well as a small increase in Goldcrest numbers with perhaps 10 birds. Across the marshes an occasional scan produced a scatter of Stonechat (5) and Dartford Warbler (3). Small numbers of Jay looked to be migrating with a movement of nine birds east.

Chiffchaff - Birds were in song today in the sunny conditions

Jay looked to be migrating in small numbers

I walked back west along the seawall constantly scanning the scrub and lagoons but it was remarkable quiet, its gone from feeling like summer to distinctly like October with the shifting of a long settled high pressure system to give way to Atlantic depressions. I recorded another three Dartford warbler, a couple of which were in song, a total of six Dartford's for the morning was a good count for the site. The tide was high and there were good numbers of waders on the lagoons and amongst them a single juvenile Little Stint on Fishtail Lagoon and a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper on Butts Lagoon. Numbers of wildfowl had increased with around 250 Wigeon, 300 Teal, 25 Pintail and at least 50 Brent Goose.

Reed Bunting - Fishtail Lagoon

Dunlin - Fishtail Lagoon

Little Stint - Fishtail Lagoon

Black-tailed Godwit - Fishtail Lagoon

All too soon had had to leave and do the sunday shopping, what a contrast being in a supermarket was to being on the marshes. Still, I needed some brownie points for my forthcoming week on Shetland and Fair Isle...

Pennington Marsh 11th-12th October 2012

Spent these two mornings birding at Pennington Marsh, the 11^th was a morning that threatened rain but instead was just rather gloomy with south-west winds of force 5. The 12^th was a beautiful crisp still autumn day with a north-west wind of force 3. My usual birding route at this site takes me around a relatively limited area of the complex of marshes covering Fishtail, Butts and Shoveler Pools from the Lower Pennington Lane car park. This is a nice route taking in bushes which are good for migrant warblers, both freshwater and saline pools and the seafront as well as providing expansive views east towards Lymington. As a result of the diversity of habitats a good range of birds can be seen and I am rarely fussed about striking eastwards towards Normandy Lagoon which does however often hold excellent numbers of birds. A map of the site can be viewed here:

http://www.hants.gov.uk/rh/lym/leaflet.pdf

Having not visited the site since 2^nd October it was quite noticeable that numbers of wildfowl and waders had increased with good numbers of wigeon, teal and pintail now present. My first dark-bellied brent geese of the year consisted of a small flock flying westwards along the Solent. The tides were particularly high during my visits and Fishtail Lagoon held a flock of 275 black-tailed godwit which gave excellent views. The birds were very nervous – possibly as a result of the high tides concentrating the birds into a relatively small area and they frequently exploded into the air to wheel around before settling again.

Black-tailed Godwit, Pennington Marsh

Shoveler Pool held two green sandpiper and three spotted redshank. Due to the small size of these pools birds here provide excellent views:

A small jay movement was in evidence on both days with eight moving east on 11^th and 11 on the 12^th. These birds appeared on site high from the west before landing in the scrub around the lagoons – here they appeared unsettled and shortly took flight and regained height to continue their movement. Birdguides (http://www.birdguides.com/home/default.asp) have reported a number of jay movements in October with 668 over Hunstanton, 189 over Sidestrand and 130 over Great Yarmouth on 6^th and 340 over Reculver and 448 over Hunstanton on 7^th October. Given that many of these records included birds arriving in off the sea it is probable that these records involve continental birds moving in response to an acorn failure, however, it is possible that a similar failure has resulted in the movement of local birds.

Also of note today was a sleepy juvenile spoonbill on Pennington Lagoon and my first brambling of the year – a male which flew east with chaffinches giving its rather harsh nasal call.