The Deskbound Birder: Pennington Marsh

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Pennington Marsh - 5th September

With the recent cool nights it definitely felt like autumn was with us and I had a longing to get back to Pennington Marsh after a long period with no visits and virtually no birding since my return from India. It was a grey and murky morning with drizzle and a light northerly wind and all the pictures from today reflect the greyness of the light. I walked a nice long loop of the site taking in the Shoveler Pools (now with water), Butts Lagoon, Fishtail Lagoon, the Old Tip, Keyhaven Lagoon, Iley Point and back along the Ancient Highway.

Autumn was definitely in the air and there were good numbers of Reed Warbler (c.25), Sedge Warbler (c.30) and Whitethroat (c.15) with a scattering of Chiffchaff (10) and Blackcap (5) but no Willow Warbler which, to me at least, appear to have been very thin on the ground this year. Most of the warblers that I saw appeared to be juvenile with only a handful of more worn looking adults seen.

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Whitethroat

Blackcap

There were good numbers of pipit and wagtail grounded with around 60 Meadow Pipit, most of which seemed to be rather scruffy looking adults with none of the classic pristine autumn first winters seen. I had two Tree Pipit on the Ancient Highway and there were around 25 Yellow Wagtail around the Butts Lagoon and Old Tip area plus a handful moving over. A single Whinchat was on the Ancient Highway.

Scruffy looking adult Meadow Pipit with its middle tertials missing

Yellow Wagtail - I find these pretty difficult to age and identify to subspecies.

I think this is an adult summer flavissima

Yellow Wagtail - Same individual as above

Yellow Wagtail - I think this is a first winter flavissima

Waders were in short supply despite the ideal tidal conditions (almost high and then falling). There were a couple of Snipe on the lagoons, 40 Black-tailed Godwit, 10 Grey Plover, a handful of Dunlin and a couple of Greenshank. The water levels within the lagoons is very high after heavy rains and not at all conducive to attracting waders. Similarly, wildfowl numbers were fairly low with 10 Wigeon and 20 Teal the only species of note.

Out in the Solent tern numbers consisted of 20 Common Tern and five Sandwich Tern and five Eider but little else of note.

Curlew

Little Egret

Stock Dove - An unusually confiding bird at Butts Lagoon

The hirundines were struggling today, clearly the conditions were poor for foraging with a flock of around 250 birds grounded on bushes around the Old Tip affording good views. Many of the birds appeared to be immature with small numbers of adult birds. House Martin were the most abundant but there were good numbers of Swallow and Sand Martin while two late Swift were present early on, these gave occasional screams, no doubt the last time I will here this in 2015.