I was working on a Badger survey on the Isle of Wight and having finished at around 12:00 I headed to Newtown Nature Reserve for a couple of hours birding. Clamerkin Lake produced very little but for a handful of
Oystercatcher and a couple of
Kingfisher. I then walked out to the boathouse for a scan, this produced a single
Brent Goose (my first of the autumn), 35
Dunlin, 15
Ringed Plover, a
Whimbrel, ten
Black-tailed Godwit and 23
Grey Plover. I decided to drive around the the East Hide. A Red Squirrel was feeding over the path in Town Copse. At the hide it was pretty slow going and, due to the low tide, most of the birds were distant. Most remarkable was a count of 53
Curlew, to me this seems like a high number for such a small estuary given the significant declines the species has experienced. I then picked up a distant
Osprey fishing from a post on the Brickfields side of Clamerkin Lake and a second bird appeared to my right and plunged after a fish scattering the
Redshank. The bird repeated its plunging in quick succession and then eventually caught a Mullet, both birds then soaring high and heading eastwards. The walk back produced a
Greenshank and a confiding
Willow Warbler on the board walk. Before the ferry I stopped briefly at the Western Yar, it was slow, 35
Black-tailed Godwit was about the best thing present.
Osprey plunge diving - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve
Osprey with Mullet - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve
Osprey with Mullet - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve
Osprey - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve
Willow Warbler - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve
Back on the mainland I had around 90 minutes before I needed to get on the road to home. So I spent a little time around Fishtail Lagoon and out to the point at Butts Lagoon. The light at Fishtail was shite and so my photographs are appalling but there were eight
Curlew Sandpiper and four
Little Stint plus a single
Wood Sandpiper and a juvenile
Ruff. It was time to head for home.
Curlew Sandpiper - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Little Stint - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Wood Sandpiper - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
