Pennington Marsh - 2nd September

A grey and windy September morning found me at Pennington Marsh once more. A quick look at Efford Lagoon produced little but for a single Common Sandpiper and 15 Swallow. I headed to Fishtail Lagoon where there were five Little Stint and three Curlew Sandpiper but otherwise it was fairly quiet. So cutting along the north side of Butts and Jetty Lagoon I headed out to the seawall where I spent some time getting fairly close views of two Wood Sandpiper, two Little Stint and a Curlew Sandpiper. Also here were 30 Black-tailed Godwit, 30 Teal, six Wigeon, two Pintail and eight Shoveler.

Wood Sandpiper - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Wood Sandpiper - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Curlew Sandpiper - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Curlew Sandpiper - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Little Stint - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Little Stint - Jetty Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

From the seawall at Butts Lagoon there were at least 80 Grey Plover, 20 Turnstone and 25 Ringed Plover. It was pretty cold and the strong winds made viewing difficult so I headed for Fishtail Lagoon where there was little but for a Common Sandpiper and around 35 Teal. Out to Keyhaven Lagoon a single Wheatear was the highlight. In the bushes there were few warblers, three Reed Warbler, a single Sedge Warbler and no more than five Chiffchaff. It was time to head off and it was some relief to get to the shelter of the car.

Common Sandpiper - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Common Gull - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Northern Wheatear- Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Isle of Wight and Pennington Marsh - 26th August

I was working on a Badger survey on the Isle of Wight and having finished at around 12:00 I headed to Newtown Nature Reserve for a couple of hours birding. Clamerkin Lake produced very little but for a handful of Oystercatcher and a couple of Kingfisher. I then walked out to the boathouse for a scan, this produced a single Brent Goose (my first of the autumn), 35 Dunlin, 15 Ringed Plover, a Whimbrel, ten Black-tailed Godwit and 23 Grey Plover. I decided to drive around the the East Hide. A Red Squirrel was feeding over the path in Town Copse. At the hide it was pretty slow going and, due to the low tide, most of the birds were distant. Most remarkable was a count of 53 Curlew, to me this seems like a high number for such a small estuary given the significant declines the species has experienced. I then picked up a distant Osprey fishing from a post on the Brickfields side of Clamerkin Lake and a second bird appeared to my right and plunged after a fish scattering the Redshank. The bird repeated its plunging in quick succession and then eventually caught a Mullet, both birds then soaring high and heading eastwards. The walk back produced a Greenshank and a confiding Willow Warbler on the board walk. Before the ferry I stopped briefly at the Western Yar, it was slow, 35 Black-tailed Godwit was about the best thing present.

Osprey plunge diving - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve

Osprey with Mullet - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve

Osprey with Mullet - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve

Osprey - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve

Willow Warbler - Clamerkin Lake, Newtown Nature Reserve

Back on the mainland I had around 90 minutes before I needed to get on the road to home. So I spent a little time around Fishtail Lagoon and out to the point at Butts Lagoon. The light at Fishtail was shite and so my photographs are appalling but there were eight Curlew Sandpiper and four Little Stint plus a single Wood Sandpiper and a juvenile Ruff. It was time to head for home.

Curlew Sandpiper - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Little Stint - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Wood Sandpiper - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Pennington Marsh - 29th July and 5th August

I have been suffering from local patch neglect of late and have been tied to my computer either at work or processing a silly number of images from my recent Alaska trip, so on 29th July I paid a short visit to Pennington Marsh walking out past Fishtail Lagoon to the point at Butts Lagoon and then to Keyhaven Lagoon. I only had my digiscoping kit and that, coupled with the heat haze has resulted in some pretty shitty images but it was simply nice to be out and about.

Water levels are generally pretty high but the marsh at the back of Fishtail is looking cracking. Waders are returning and on Fishtail Lagoon there were 125 Black-tailed Godwit. Also here were 30 Dunlin, six Snipe, three Common Sandpiper and six Little Ringed Plover. On the intertidal was a single Sanderling, 350 Dunlin, 30 Turnstone, four Whimbrel, 12 Grey Plover, 10 Common Tern and six Sandwich Tern.

Black-tailed Godwit - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Black-headed Gull (juvenile), apparently they have had a very good breeding season at Keyhaven this year which is good to hear since many years the nests get flooded out during Spring Tides - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Common Gull, my first of the 'winter' - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Eider, an eclipse male off Butts Lagoon - Pennington Marsh

On 4th August I paid another brief visit to Pennington Marshes and walked from the end of Lower Pennington Lane out past Fishtail Lagoon to the seawall, around Butts Lagoon and back past Shoveler Pools. The tide was on the rise and there were fewer birds on the pools with most birds being on the remaining intertidal. Dunlin numbers were put to around 600 while there were at least 50 Turnstone, 20 Grey Plover, three Bar-tailed Godwit, 30 Sandwich Tern and 20 Common Tern. My first Wigeon and Pintail of the 'winter' were on Fishtail Lagoon. On Shoveler Pools there were three Little Ringed Plover, a Green Sandpiper and a Wood Sandpiper. Again, I only had my digiscoping kit so my images are a bit shite.

Wood Sandpiper - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Green Sandpiper - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Little Ringed Plover - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Pennington Marsh 8th August 2014

I had a little bit of time before a survey today so popped down to Pennington Marshes for a couple of hours. The weather was warm and sunny with a south-west breeze and it felt distinctly like early Autumn with the Bramble loaded with ripe blackberries and the Blackthorn clad with sloes.

There are still very few wildfowl around with only 2 Teal and 3 Shoveler amongst the resident Mallards. The Shelduck chicks have now grown and shed their down and have replaced this with their juvenile plumage. In the autumn they will moult again to gain an adult like plumage, first years are still distinguishable from the adults by the white trailing edge to the otherwise black secondaries and primaries.

Juvenile Shelduck Fishtail lagoon

There were good numbers of wader on the lagoons with a total of 4 Greenshank, approximately 250 Dunlin, 350 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Ruff, 6 Little Ringed Plover and 10 Ringed Plover. The Pectoral Sandpiper was still showing well at the west end of Fishtail and at times was feeding alongside the Wood Sandpiper and Ruff.

Dunlin (mainly adult summer) with Black-tailed Godwit and Coot on Fishtail Lagoon. This lagoon is superb this autumn and is attracting large numbers of birds.

Ruff and Wood Sandpiper on Fishtail Lagoon

There were few land migrants but the numbers of Sedge and Reed Warbler seemed high with many yellowish juveniles of the former in the Bramble and lagoon edge vegetation. Hirundines were in evidence with approximately 150 Swallow, 75 House Martin and 25 Sand Martin moving around the area. My first Wheatear of the autumn was present but frustratingly was flushed by two women with dogs as I tried to photograph it, they seemed completely oblivious as they talked nonsense to their animals. Around 15 Swift moved west through the area occasionally foraging low over the lagoons, it won't be long before they are gone.

My first Wheatear of the Autumn

All to soon it was time to make a move and after a short while trying to get onto the M3 which was clogged with traffic due to an accident I abandoned my survey and went into the office.

Pectoral Sandpiper at Pennington Marsh - 1st August

I spent a couple of hours at Pennington Marsh this morning prior to a survey in Dorset. There were many waders around and while I did not count them I would estimate around 350 Black-tailed Godwit and 200 Dunlin on Butts and Fishtail Lagoons alone. As I scanned across Butts Lagoon hoping for a Dowitcher or a Stilt Sandpiper I came across a semi-familiar jizz amongst the Dunlin flock, a Pectoral Sandpiper, nice! I watched it for a while before it took flight and headed towards Fishtail Lagoon so I headed that way. I was pleased to see my first Wood Sandpiper of the autumn at Pennington feeding on the Enteromorpha rafts on Fishtail Lagoon.

Wood Sandpiper - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh - Simon Colenutt

As I got to the far west corner of Fishtail there was a high number of Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwit and then on the near bank, there it was, the Pectoral Sandpiper showing brilliantly. The bird fed on the near shore amongst the Dunlin but unfortunately the light was not great for digiscoping but I could a few reasonable shots. The lower photo shows the bird crouching as a Kestrel flew over.

Pectoral Sandpiper - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh - Simon Colenutt

There was much argie-bargie amongst the Black-tailed Godwits presumably as they vied for space on the lagoons as new birds arrived. The bird below is in a threat display as another bird encroached into its feeding space.

                   Black-tailed Godwit - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh - Simon Colenutt