The Deskbound Birder: Pennington Marsh - 21st and 22nd September

Sunday 23 September 2018

Pennington Marsh - 21st and 22nd September

It was the second storm of the Autumn, Storm Bronagh, which passed over the UK just 24 hours after the passing of Storm Ali. Bronagh seemed to be a more subdued affair with maximum wind speeds around 30mph lower than Ali, mind you when I arrived at Pennington around seven hours after the passing of the peak of the storm it was still exceedingly windy. I had very little time and decided to head to Fishtail Lagoon which is proving to be superb at the moment with water levels ideal. I spent some time here scanning the Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit and Ringed Plover looking for something a little more unusual but the highlight proved to be a fine juvenile Little Stint that flew in from the east with a Dunlin flock. I headed on to Keyhaven Lagoon which was almost devoid of bird life but for a fine juvenile Ruff which showed well. I then headed back along the seawall past Butts Lagoon and past Jetty Lagoon before cutting back to the carpark. It was tough going in the wind and I saw little but for five Swallow and a Water Rail. Back at the car I dumped my scope and wandered along the Ancient Highway seeing 12 Sand Martin over Efford Lagoon and 30 Wigeon on the balancing pond at the western end of the Ancient Highway.

Juvenile Ruff - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Storm Bronagh (windy.com)

On 22nd September, Sarah and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary and so while Sarah was having a treatment at the spa I dropped Tobias at a friends for a play date and then popped to Pennington Marsh. I had no more than two hours and so decided to spend the entirety of my time at Fishtail Lagoon. Scanning from the Old Tip there were clearly good numbers of waders on the lagoon and after picking up a distant Curlew Sandpiper I decided to head to the seawall to get closer. It wasn't long before I picked up a fine juvenile Grey Phalarope feeding on the north shore of the lagoon. I spent virtually all my time with this bird and it wasn't long before it made its way across the lagoon to feed on the southern shore and gave superb views down to around 5m or so. The two recent storms have displaced many Grey Phalarope with at least 100 being reported around the UK with many inland records. The weather was pretty fowl and the rain became progressively heavy and so my images are perhaps not as good as they could have been but I was happy with the views of the bird that I had obtained. There were also five Knot, 120 Black-tailed Godwit, 250 Dunlin, one Spotted Redshank and 15 Ringed Plover on the lagoon - surely its not long before something really good shows on the lagoon? Also while here I recorded single Wheatear and Whinchat, six Yellow Wagtail and a moribund Arctic Tern on the mud of the lagoon. It was midday and time to head off to meet Sarah for a celebratory lunch - I was chuffed with my couple of hours at Pennington.