With a break in the Christmas festivities and a beautiful cold sunny winters day forecast I decided to head for Pennington Marsh for a few of hours at first light. As I past New Park Farm just south of Lyndhurst a fine stag Red Deer was present with around 15 doe adjacent to the road so I stopped for a few snaps in the half light.
Red Deer stag - New Park Farm
At Pennington I walked a circuit around Fishtail and Butts Lagoon. There were good numbers of gulls on Efford Lagoon with perhaps 150 Herring Gull, 15 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 10 Great Black-backed Gull and several hundred Black-headed Gull. Surely this lagoon will hold a rare gull in the not too distant future.
With much of the freshwater frozen birds were concentrated onto the saline lagoons and on areas of unfrozen freshwater. Birds seen were typical for the site and included good numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Pintail and Shoveler on the lagoons. The tide was low and many of the waders were rather distant on the mudflats
Wigeon - Fishtail Lagoon, the right hand male is a first winter showing subdued plumage and a much reduced white wing flash
Wigeon - Fishtail Lagoon
Wigeon - Male and female in flight
Teal
Grey Heron - Fishtail Lagoon
Pied Wagtail - Fishtail Lagoon
Magpie
Reed Bunting - Female in scrub to the west of Fishtail Lagoon
I watched this Little Egret fishing in a saltwater channel to the north of the seawall at Fishtail Lagoon, It seemed to be fairly successful at catching Minnows in the shallows.
Little Egret
Little Egret
Little Egret
Shoveler - Butts Lagoon
Shoveler - Butts Lagoon
Robin - Shoveler Pools
