Pennington Marsh - 29th March

On a beautiful spring like morning, I dropped Tobias off for his last day at school before the Easter holidays and spent a couple of hours at Pennington Marsh. At the corner of Lower Pennington Lane I had a coffee and watched the Lapwing displaying and listened to the Sky Lark but other than small numbers of Wigeon and Teal there was little else on the marsh. I drove down to the car park at the end of the lane and headed a short way along the Ancient Highway. On Efford Lagoon the Great Crested Grebe were displaying and there were around 15 Tufted Duck still on the water. The passerines were in full song with many Sky Lark over the old landfill and the Gorse full of the sound of Greenfinch, Linnet, Dunnock and a single Dartford Warbler.

Male Greenfinch in full song in the Gorse - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Male Greenfinch in full song in the Gorse - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Male Greenfinch eating Hawthorn buds - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Female Greenfinch  - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Meadow Pipit - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Dunnock in song in the Gorse - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Great Crested Grebe - Efford Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

I wandered out past Fishtail Lagoon where the water levels currently look excellent for attracting a rare spring wader. There were at least 12 Ruff, 15 Snipe and 32 Avocet, my highest count ever of the latter for Pennington Marsh. There were still many Wigeon, and Teal on the marsh and I spent some time scanning for Garganey but with no luck. There were also still small number of Brent Goose and Pintail remaining. Wandering out to Keyhaven Lagoon there were five sleeping Spoonbill and a further 16 Avocet plus four Greenshank and two Spotted Redshank. It was time to collect Tobias and retracing my steps I found my first Adder of the year along the northern bank of Butts Lagoon. It had been a pleasant couple of hours but I had seen no summer migrants.

Spoonbill - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Wigeon - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh