Pennington Marsh - 23rd March

With a couple of hours to spare after dropping Tobias at school I had a wander around Pennington Marsh taking in Jetty, Butts, Fishtail and Keyhaven Lagoons. It was a bright spring like day but with a strong NW wind it was deceptively cold. Numbers of wader and wildfowl had shown a noticeable and decrease since my last visit with numbers of species such as Wigeon, Pintail and Black-tailed Godwit now into the low hundreds while I only saw 12 Pintail and no more than 50 Golden Plover. The Red-necked Grebe off the seawall is now entering summer plumage but there was no sign of the Slavonian Grebe that have wintered here. There were six Great-crested Grebe and ten Eider off shore but little else. On Jetty Lagoon there was a single Spotted Redshank still in winter plumage and two adult and a juvenile Spoonbill. As I walked along the seawall I flushed my first Wheatear of the season but only managed to obtain an arse-end view as it flew east and out of sight. At the point beside Butts Lagoon the semi-resident pair of Peregrine which seem to spend much time sitting on the shingle bar were harassing the waders. On the mudflats were around 150 Knot, 500 Dunlin and 75 Bar-tailed Godwit while a flock of around 200 Brent Goose fed in the saltmarsh on the rising tide. Keyhaven Lagoon was fairly devoid of birds but for around 40 Shelduck and two Avocet. Turning inland two Bearded Reedling were showing well in the reedbed in Butts Lagoon where they bred last year and two Chiffchaff sung from the old dump. Two Adder showed well on the south facing embankment adjacent to Butts Lagoon and there was a single crisp male along the Ancient Highway.

Bearded Reedling - Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

 Peregrine - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

 Dunlin - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

 Brent Goose - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Mistle Thrush - The Old Dump, Pennington Marsh

 Adder - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Spoonbill (adult left and juvenile) - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

 Spoonbill (juvenile) - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Peregrine - Over Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose, this is one of the few juveniles that I have seen this winter, they seemed to have had a poor breeding season in 2017 - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Coot - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Cornwall - 16th-20th March

A long weekend in Cornwall and nothing much planned, I wanted to relax after a busy time at work, watch the final matches of the 6 Nations and drink some wine! But there were a few birds to see and I decided to bird on the morning of 17th before abandoning the bins and relaxing (unless of course something good was found).  So, on the morning of 17th I was up at 06:30 and on my way to Helston where a Bonaparte's Gull (1st winter) had been present on the boating since 5th March. I arrived at the boating lake at 07:30 and there was no sign of the bird but in the southern end of the lake was a flock of around 75 Black-headed Gull and I decided that this was the obvious place where the bird would appear. I waited for 20 minutes with no luck and then decide to walk around the lake seeing Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Chiffchaff and Grey Wagtail. By the time I returned to the southern end a brief scan revealed the Bonaparte's, obvious because of its small size even at a distance. For the next hour or so I enjoyed good views of this diminutive gull as it loafed amongst the Black-headed Gull and occasionally uttered a distinctive tern like call.

On 19th a morning on the beach with Nigel, Alice, Sarah and the boys found us playing rugby - of sorts! Off shore there were three Sandwich Tern, my first migrants of the year.

Bonaparte's Gull, note the black bill, blackish wing markings and neat trailing edge to the wing. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Compare the wing and head pattern to the Black-headed Gull in the background. To me this species is intermediate between Black-headed Gull and Little Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the clean white underwing and bubble-gum pink legs. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - This image is roughly to scale with the Black-headed Gull below. 

Helston Boating Lake.

Black-headed Gull (1st winter) - Roughly to scale with the image of the Bonaparte's Gull above. The greater bulk and orange to red bill of the Black-headed is distinctive and obvious. While the dark tertial centres are said to be darker on Bonaparte's this is not obvious. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the distinctive white underwing with neat dark trailing 

edge to the primaries and secondaries. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the distinctive white underwing with neat dark trailing 

edge to the primaries and secondaries. Helston Boating Lake.

Shoveler - Helston Boating Lake

Shoveler - Helston Boating Lake

Coot - Helston Boating Lake

Coot - Helston Boating Lake

Rook - Helston Boating Lake

With time now pressing on I spent an hour on the Hayle Estuary scanning the saltmarsh at Lelant. I quickly found the three Cattle Egret reported yesterday and one of the two Iceland Gull plus a Spoonbill - quite a nice selection for such a small area of marsh. Other birds here were Bar-tailed Godwit (3), Greenshank (1), Pintail (5), Wigeon (c.150+) and Mediterranean Gull (3).

Cattle Egret (3) with Herring and Black-headed Gull - Hayle Estuary

Iceland Gull (1st winter) with Wigeon and Herring Gull - Hayle Estuary

Iceland Gull (1st winter) - Hayle Estuary

Iceland Gull (1st winter) with Black-headed Gull - Hayle Estuary

Spoonbill with Redshank and Lesser Black-backed Gull - Hayle Estuary

Spoonbill - Hayle Estuary

Spoonbill with Herring Gull - Hayle Estuary

Pennington Marsh - 2nd, 3rd and 4th October

On 2nd October I was surveying near to Christchurch and couldn't resist quickly popping into Pennington Marsh on my way to site for a quick try for the Long-billed Dowitcher that had been present since 23rd September. In addition, I had just purchased the Swarovski ATX 85 with a TLS APO DSLR digiscoping adaptor which was attached to my Canon 7d Mark 2 and wanted to trial the scope and the digiscoping set-up. I was on site at around 09:00 and bumped into Pete Durnell, a friend of 31 years and the site warden, we had a bit of a chin-wag and then I headed off with time to bird Shoveler Pools and Fishtail Lagoon only. The usual range of birds was present with the highlights being the Long-billed Dowitcher, although this showed rather distantly at the back of Fishtail Lagoon, and a single Spotted Redshank.

I was back at Penningtoon on the morning of the 3rd with around four hours available so I wandered a route around Shoveler Pools, Butts Lagoon and Fishtail Lagoon taking my time in the early morning light and playing with the new set-up. Wildfowl numbers are starting to climb rapidly now with 25 Pintail, 30 Shoveler, 150 Wigeon and 225 Teal - most of these birds either juveniles or eclipse plumage males. My first Brent Goose of the year were present with 15 birds seen. Wader numbers were fairly low with the highlights being 15 Snipe, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 4 Spotted Redshank and the Long-billed Dowitcher again, this time asleep at at the back of Fishtail Lagoon and showing poorly. A single Tree Pipit flew high south overhead and around 250 House Martin and 30 Swallow were present in the area.

On the 4th October I took Tobias across on the Isle of Wight ferry to stay with his Grandad for a few days and on the return I stopped at Pennington Marshes again for an hour or so. Birds were much as yesterday. I counted 87 Coot on the Efford Lagoon, they really seem to like the lagoon with a big increase in numbers since this time last year, in addition there were 5 Mediterranean Gull and good numbers of commoner gulls, I scanned the flock for ringed birds but there appeared to be none. As I scanned Fishtail Lagoon I noticed the Long-billed Dowitcher a little closer to the path and feeding on the island in the middle of the lagoon with around 50 Redshank. The batteries on the 7D Mk2 had died so I hurried back to the car to grab my 1DX and 400 DO Mk2 with 1.4 extender, this is my favourite photography combo. A rattled off a few shots but the Redshank, being the nervy birds they are, took flight taking the Dowitcher with them.

So, these are the best of the ATX85 and Apo plus 7D Mark 2 combo tested early in the morning when the light is perhaps not the best giving a rather orange cast. I am fairly pleased with the results, my favourite image being the Mute Swan. I used the camera on TV setting with the shutter speed at 800-1200th and ISO at 800 and played around with the zoom on the scope. The bottom four images were taken with my Canon 1DX, 400mm DO Mark 2 and 1.4x extender.

Greenshank in the early morning sun at Pennington Marshes. Taken with the ATX combo at 25x

Curlew in at Butts Bay, Pennington Marsh. Taken with the ATX combo at 35x

Mallard - Fishtail Lagoon. Taken with the ATX combo at 25x

Wigeon - Fishtail Lagoon. Taken with the ATX combo at 35x

Pintail - Fishtail Lagoon. Taken with the ATX combo at 45x

Mute Swan - Fishtail Lagoon. Taken with the ATX combo at 25x

Coot - Fishtail Lagoon. Taken with the ATX combo at 40x

Kingfisher in the early morning sun and fog. Taken with the ATX combo at 40x

Reed Bunting, female - Butts Lagoon. Taken with the ATX combo at 35x

Long-billed Dowitcher - Rather distant on Fishtail Lagoon. 1DX and 400 DO plus 1.4x extender

Long-billed Dowitcher - Rather distant on Fishtail Lagoon. 1DX and 400 DO plus 1.4x extender

Grey Heron - Fishtail Lagoon. 1DX and 400 DO plus 1.4x extender

Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon. 1DX and 400 DO plus 1.4x extender