The Deskbound Birder: March 2017

Friday, 31 March 2017

Pennington Marsh - 27th March and Cotswolds 29th March to 1st April

Another lengthy spell with little or no birding. After dropping Tobias at a party in Lymington on 27th March, Sarah and I went for an afternoon walk around Pennington Marshes taking in Jetty Lagoon and Oxey Marsh. A male Garganey had been present on Oxey since the 19th March and it didn't take long to pick it up as it fed at the back of the lagoon with Teal, it was a little distant and in fairly poor light but nice to see. Other birds on the marsh included around 50 Brent Goose and small numbers of the usual winter wildfowl and waders.

Garganey - Oxey Marsh, Pennington

From 29th March to 1st April we were up at our cottage in the Cotswolds I was hoping to go birding but we were unable to get childcare for Tobias and so I spent most of the weekend messing around in the garden planting up our small wildflower area. I ran the moth trap on each of the three nights and recorded the following species;

Brindled Beauty
Chestnut
Clouded Drab
Common Quaker
Dotted Chestnut
Dark Sword-grass
Diurnea fagella
Early Grey
Early Thorn
Hebrew Character
Herald
March Moth
Mottled Grey
Oak Beauty
Pale Pinion
Red Chestnut
Shoulder Stripe
Small Quaker
Twin-spotted Quaker
White-marked

White-marked was a new species for me which was pleasing, I don't get to see many new moths as I have been trapping for over 30 years so this was the definite highlight. The species is locally distributed in central southern England and into the south-Midlands and south and mid-Wales - I haven't really trapped in these areas before hence the reason the species is new.

Dark Sword-grass - Normally considered a migrant

White-marked - A new moth for me

Oak Beauty

Shoulder Stripe

Twin-spotted Quaker

Dotted Chestnut

The Herald

Brindled Beauty

Pale Pinion

Mottled Grey

Red Chestnut

A Pheasant coming after the moths

Saturday, 25 March 2017

Pennington Marsh - 23rd March

I was longing to get out birding as Spring is starting to feel like it is setting in and so after dropping Tobias at school in Lymington I headed to Pennington Marsh for a short walk. I stopped at the corner of Lower Pennington Lane where I had a coffee and scanned the marshes. There were a few Teal and Wigeon hanging on and small numbers of Brent Goose while singing from the willows were at least two Chiffchaff while overhead there were two House Martin, my first Hirundine of the year. Lapwing were displaying, what a fantastic sound they make, and I could see a few birds incubating within the grassland.

A wander to Efford Lagoon produced 15 Tufted Duck, a single Ruff and around 30 Pied Wagtail while gulls included Great Black-backed, Herring and around 75 Black-headed Gull.

A walk onto the seawall and there was a biting west wind blowing so I hurried towards Fishtail lagoon picking up a Slavonian Grebe, eight Pintail and small numbers of Turnstone, Dunlin, Grey Plover and Black-tailed Godwit. At Fishtail Lagoon a 1st summer male Marsh Harrier flew east and showed well flushing many of the Teal and Wigeon and at least three Snipe from the Lagoon. Best of all though were four Bearded Reedling busy nest building, two of the males showed very well along the reed edge and I spent some time enjoying these fabulous birds.

Bearded Reedling - Pennington Marsh

Lapwing - Pennington Marsh

Oystercatcher - Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose - Pennington Marsh

Kestrel - Pennington Marsh

Meadow Pipit - Pennington Marsh

Great Black-backed Gull - Pennington Marsh

Turnstone, just entering summer plumage with some rufous appearing

in the scapulars- Pennington Marsh

Marsh Harrier (1st summer male) - Pennington Marsh

Sunday, 19 March 2017

Cornwall - 16th-20th March

A long weekend in Cornwall and nothing much planned, I wanted to relax after a busy time at work, watch the final matches of the 6 Nations and drink some wine! But there were a few birds to see and I decided to bird on the morning of 17th before abandoning the bins and relaxing (unless of course something good was found). So, on the morning of 17th I was up at 06:30 and on my way to Helston where a Bonaparte's Gull (1st winter) had been present on the boating since 5th March. I arrived at the boating lake at 07:30 and there was no sign of the bird but in the southern end of the lake was a flock of around 75 Black-headed Gull and I decided that this was the obvious place where the bird would appear. I waited for 20 minutes with no luck and then decide to walk around the lake seeing Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Chiffchaff and Grey Wagtail. By the time I returned to the southern end a brief scan revealed the Bonaparte's, obvious because of its small size even at a distance. For the next hour or so I enjoyed good views of this diminutive gull as it loafed amongst the Black-headed Gull and occasionally uttered a distinctive tern like call.

On 19th a morning on the beach with Nigel, Alice, Sarah and the boys found us playing rugby - of sorts! Off shore there were three Sandwich Tern, my first migrants of the year.

Bonaparte's Gull, note the black bill, blackish wing markings and neat trailing edge to the wing. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Compare the wing and head pattern to the Black-headed Gull in the background. To me this species is intermediate between Black-headed Gull and Little Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the clean white underwing and bubble-gum pink legs. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - This image is roughly to scale with the Black-headed Gull below.

Helston Boating Lake.

Black-headed Gull (1st winter) - Roughly to scale with the image of the Bonaparte's Gull above. The greater bulk and orange to red bill of the Black-headed is distinctive and obvious. While the dark tertial centres are said to be darker on Bonaparte's this is not obvious. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the distinctive white underwing with neat dark trailing

edge to the primaries and secondaries. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the distinctive white underwing with neat dark trailing

edge to the primaries and secondaries. Helston Boating Lake.

Shoveler - Helston Boating Lake

Coot - Helston Boating Lake

Rook - Helston Boating Lake

With time now pressing on I spent an hour on the Hayle Estuary scanning the saltmarsh at Lelant. I quickly found the three Cattle Egret reported yesterday and one of the two Iceland Gull plus a Spoonbill - quite a nice selection for such a small area of marsh. Other birds here were Bar-tailed Godwit (3), Greenshank (1), Pintail (5), Wigeon (c.150+) and Mediterranean Gull (3).