Sarah was in London today and so it was my duty to collect Tobias from school. Heading off from work a little early I spent a couple of hours at Pennington. I had, unintentionally, coincided my visit with the passing of the remnants of
Hurricane Dorian that had passed, so devastatingly, over the Caribbean last week before tracking up the eastern coast of the USA and crossing the Atlantic passing to the north of the UK but creating windy and damp conditions further south. It was very windy and grey and difficult conditions in which to bird. Parking at the car park at the bottom of Lower Pennington Lane and walking over the Old Landfill it was evident that there was a small but steady stream of hirundines, mainly
House Martin and
Sand Martin but a few
Swallow, moving west into the wind. A single juvenile
Whinchat showed briefly on the dump but despite looking the bird had vanished. I set my scope up to the north of Butts Lagoon and scanned across the mud and water, there were small numbers of wader, mainly sheltering behind the reeds, with a single juvenile
Little Stint, four
Greenshank, three
Spotted Redshank, 50
Black-tailed Godwit, 30
Lapwing, a single
Snipe and a handful of
Ringed Plover and
Dunlin. I wandered onto Fishtail Lagoon but it was almost devoid of birds, a distinctive 'tip, tip' overhead and the
Little Stint dropped onto the lagoon with three
Dunlin and a
Ringed Plover and showed fairly well, if a little distantly for such a small wader. I wandered onto Keyhaven Lagoon where a
Wheatear showed well along the path but on the lagoon there was little but for 18
Teal.
I then wandered back eastwards scanning the same areas as before, small numbers of
Whitethroat were in the Brambles, on the sea were 15
Eider, two
Sandwich Tern, an adult and a juvenile passed by, to the west, but it was fairly quite otherwise. Heading back towards the car via Jetty Lagoon, I stopped at the jetty and scanned the mudflats and sea, there were around 25
Grey Plover, some still in almost full summer plumage, as well as around 45
Ringed Plover and a similar number of
Turnstone. I headed back towards the car and then birded the Ancient Highway for a short while, there were four
Common Sandpiper on Efford Lagoon along with a single
Egyptian Goose. On the highway the birding was tricky due to the strong winds and I recorded singles of
Chiffchaff,
Stonechat,
Lesser Whitethroat and
Common Whitethroat plus a trickle of Hirundines overhead. It was time to head off to collect Tobias.
Northern Wheatear - Pennington Marsh
Northern Wheatear - Pennington Marsh
Little Stint and Dunlin - Pennington Marsh
Eider - Pennington Marsh
Sandwich Tern - Pennington Marsh
Sandwich Tern - Pennington Marsh
Common Stonechat - Pennington Marsh
