Sunday 4 August 2019

Pennington Marsh - 4th August

With a spare Sunday I thought it was time I popped to Pennington Marsh for some late summer birding and the chance of a passage wader or two. Arriving on site at 07:00 I walked out to Jetty Lagoon back around via Butts to Keyhaven Lagoon and the back past Fishtail Lagoon. The bushes were alive with juvenile Whitethroat and there were good numbers of Reed Warbler in the ditches and reedbeds. Overhead small numbers of Swift, Sand Martin and Swallow moved west into the wind and a single Yellow Wagtail called overhead. It was low tide and so the lagoons were not as lively as they could have been, there were around 270 Black-tailed Godwit on Butts Lagoon, nine Dunlin, 12 Lapwing, two Greenshank and four Spotted Redshank. The only ducks of any note were three Shoveler on Fishtail Lagoon. On the mudflats there were three Goosander, 15 Ringed Plover and small numbers of Dunlin while at sea there were ten Common Tern. The marshes were being terrorised by two Peregrine chicks and they seemed to delight in flushing the Canada Geese and Avocet (five adult) on Fishtail Lagoon.

Black-tailed Godwit - Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit - Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit - Pennington Marsh

These Curlew were in a boundary dispute and paced back and forth side by side over the same length of mud for at least five minutes - Pennington Marsh

Oystercatcher - Pennington Marsh

Shoveler - Pennington Marsh

Juvenile Black-headed Gull - Pennington Marsh