The Deskbound Birder: Pennington Marsh

Wednesday, 26 April 2017

Pennington Marsh - 20th April

The spring seems to be passing me by this year, already the 20th April and I have see but a handful of migrants and still no Wheatear. I dropped Tobias at school in Lymington and decided to spend a couple of hours at Pennington Marsh before work. At Lower Pennington Lane a handful of Wigeon were present on the floods and two distant House Martin added a spring feel as did a singing Willow Warbler. A lovely flock of eight Mediterranean Gull flew over head, two second-summer and the remainder adult.

Mediterranean Gull (six adult and two second-summer birds) - Pennington Marsh

As I pulled into the car park at Lower Pennington it was evident that the Whitethroat were in with at least five singing around the car park. A short walk out past Efford Lagoon produced two Swift, three Swallow, five House Martin, two Sand Martin and a Little Ringed Plover. So there are migrants around.

Whitethroat - Pennington Marsh

Wandering out towards the sea and past Shoveler Pools I quickly came across a pair of Garganey very close to the path. The male was giving a very bizarre frog-like song which I had never heard before. The song can be heard here. I watched these birds for some time at close range until they were flushed by a dog walker although they quickly settled again further away on the lagoon.

Male Garganey - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Female Garganey - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Pair of Garganey - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Female Garganey - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Male Garganey - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

I wandered out to the seawall and offshore were two Sandwich Tern plus small numbers of Knot, Dunlin and Grey Plover on the mudflats. The Turnstone are now well advanced into their summer plumage. From the reedbeds at Butts Lagoon sang good numbers of Reed Warbler and the Bearded Reedling are still present and showing well.

Turnstone - Pennington Marsh

Grey Heron - Pennington Marsh

I spent the last of my time scanning Fishtail lagoon, here the Swift were buzzing overhead and three Spoonbill were present on the lagoon. Small numbers of duck were present with a lone male Pintail, 15 Wigeon and around 30 Teal plus three Ruff. I watched for some time a pair of Great Black-backed Gull consuming a freshly dead Black-tailed Godwit - something I had not seen before. The godwit was still relatively fresh and intact and while I did not see the gulls kill the bird, I suspect that this is what had happened, albeit likely that the godwit was probably on its last legs already. It looked to be a relatively healthy, full summer plumaged bird.