The morning started well, I stopped at the corner of Lower Pennington Lane for a coffee and to scan the marsh when I picked up a Barn Owl hunting of the Juncus beds, this is a scarce species at the site and one that I have only seen on a handful of occasions previously. I walked the Ancient Highway and then back east along the seawall. There were good numbers of Common Whitethroat in the bushes with around 30 seen in total. Small numbers of Reed Warbler were still 'chacking' from the reedbeds with around 15 seen. Two Lesser Whitethroat were on the Ancient Highway, one giving a scratching sub-song with an occasional rattle. Numbers of Phylloscopus were low with only five Willow Warbler recorded. There seemed to be very little visible migration underway with five Tree Pipit, a single Yellow Wagtail, a handful of Meadow Pipit, 35 Swallow, five House Martin and ten Sand Martin. There were large numbers of Starling, these presumably being locally bred birds, with one flock of around 250 birds feeding on the seawall. A single Wheatear showed well on the seawall at Keyhaven Lagoon.
Moving onto the lagoons, while it was high tide, the numbers of wader seemed low with singletons of Spotted Redshank and Greenshank, 55 Grey Plover, some in their smart summer plumage, 65 Black-tailed Godwit, 250 Lapwing, 35 Dunlin and 15 Ringed Plover. Ducks consisted of around 60 Teal and 15 Shoveler. A scan to sea produced no terns at all but the resident Eider flock showed well as they loafed on the mudflats off Butts Lagoon and drifted around in the sea - a right motley bunch of birds.
At 09:30 I headed to my survey near to Christchurch where a flyover Tree Pipit and a late Beautiful Demoiselle were the highlights.
Common Whitethroat - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh
Common Whitethroat - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh
Autumnal berries - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh
Hurst Castle and Lighthouse - From Pennington Marsh
Grey Plover - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Juvenile Redshank - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Shoveler - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Northern Wheatear - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Common Gull - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Eider - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Eider - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Turnstone - Off Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh
Starling - Pennington Marsh
Beautiful Demoiselle - Christchurch, Dorset
