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.

Red Admiral

The red admiral is one of my favourite butterflies and is a familiar site feeding at ivy blossom, buddleja, blackberries and windfallen fruit in the autumn. The species is familiar throughout the UK and can be found in inner city areas where buddleja is a favoured foodplant. The red admiral occurs throught the USA, Europe, North Africa and as far east as Iran. Some populations are strongly migratory and influxes into the UK are thought to originate in Europe or as far south as North Africa. While the species overwinters in small numbers in the UK in the spring numbers are bolstered by early immigrants. However, numbers reach their peak in the autumn after successful breeding during the summer months and additional waves of immigration. A recent walk in Kenidjack Valley to the east of St. Just produced over 75 feeding on ivy blossom and while many of these may have emerged in the UK it is probable that many were fresh immigrants from swollen European populations.

Red Admiral (Simon Colenutt)