With a couple of hours to spare after dropping Tobias at school I had a wander around Pennington Marsh taking in Jetty, Butts, Fishtail and Keyhaven Lagoons. It was a bright spring like day but with a strong NW wind it was deceptively cold. Numbers of wader and wildfowl had shown a noticeable and decrease since my last visit with numbers of species such as
Wigeon,
Pintail and
Black-tailed Godwit now into the low hundreds while I only saw 12
Pintail and no more than 50
Golden Plover. The
Red-necked Grebe off the seawall is now entering summer plumage but there was no sign of the Slavonian Grebe that have wintered here. There were six
Great-crested Grebe and ten
Eider off shore but little else. On Jetty Lagoon there was a single
Spotted Redshank still in winter plumage and two adult and a juvenile
Spoonbill. As I walked along the seawall I flushed my first
Wheatear of the season but only managed to obtain an arse-end view as it flew east and out of sight. At the point beside Butts Lagoon the semi-resident pair of
Peregrine which seem to spend much time sitting on the shingle bar were harassing the waders. On the mudflats were around 150
Knot, 500
Dunlin and 75
Bar-tailed Godwit while a flock of around 200
Brent Goose fed in the saltmarsh on the rising tide. Keyhaven Lagoon was fairly devoid of birds but for around 40
Shelduck and two
Avocet. Turning inland two
Bearded Reedling were showing well in the reedbed in Butts Lagoon where they bred last year and two
Chiffchaff sung from the old dump. Two Adder showed well on the south facing embankment adjacent to Butts Lagoon and there was a single crisp male along the Ancient Highway.
Bearded Reedling - Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Peregrine - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Dunlin - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Brent Goose - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Mistle Thrush - The Old Dump, Pennington Marsh
Adder - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh
Spoonbill (adult left and juvenile) - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Spoonbill (juvenile) - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Peregrine - Over Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Brent Goose - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Brent Goose - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Brent Goose, this is one of the few juveniles that I have seen this winter, they seemed to have had a poor breeding season in 2017 - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Coot - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
