The Deskbound Birder: Pennington Marsh and Acres Down

Wednesday 30 March 2016

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

Fallow Deer - 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.