Patching Pleasures

 What I especially like about patching, and I suspect this is true of most patch birders, is picking up on the subtle changes that might otherwise go unnoticed on a casual visit to a site. This is especially true of those patches which, like mine, don't exactly have an overwhelming number of birds.

This morning I visited Barton for the 4th time this week (excluding a couple of others whilst working) and there has clearly been a little bit - and really just a little bit - on the move. Just about noticeable has been a small increase in Robins, more so has been the greater number of Blackbirds, with all the newbies of the latter being males. I'm only talking an additional three or four, but definitely an increase, with another male Blackbird this morning heading quite high west that clearly wasn't a local bird. One gets to know where they'd normally be, and therefore tend to notice when they pop up elsewhere. There was also an extra male Stonechat today, in addition to the usual three pairs.

Another sign this morning of the year moving along was the first Skylark song of the year, both from birds in flight

and also taking the lazier option. 

I check the roadside pools most visits, with the Little Grebe now recorded each time. Even when not seen, he has started regularly "singing", so is generally heard. As far as I can tell it is just the one, but last year breeding was successful on these pools, although I only saw one chick once, very soon after hatching, and then the whole family inexplicably disappeared.

Today he had unusual company (generally it's just a gang of 5 Moorhens and the occasional Mallard or two), in the form of a Cormorant. Another "so what?" bird for anyone not patching, but I've not seen one on these pools before.

It's a tiny pond and it's hard to imagine there are any fish in it, let alone anything worthy of the attentions of a Cormorant, but it spent a lot of time trying. Do they also feed on invertebrates?

Two Siskins heading northeast were a patch year tick (now on 80), and further evidence of a little migration maybe. Yet another one of those records that one only really appreciates as a patch birder. For any casual visitor they would just have been a couple of Siskins, but for me they were another little snippet to make the effort worthwhile.

Up at Hordle Cliff the now-regular Whimbrel was again in fields with Curlews and Oystercatchers, and with the sun out I slightly improved on previous photographic efforts, although it was still a little distant.

Heading back to the car along the clifftop regular scanning offshore produced pretty much nothing, although a Mediterranean Gull performed nicely on the golf course and clifftop path.

Had it down as an adult, although the photographs show a little black on the second outermost primary (p9?) which suggest maybe it's not quite there yet.

Back at the car I drove along to the west end of Marine Drive, where there was a bit more to be seen on the sea, with 7 Shags, 27 Great Crested Grebes and a Red-throated Diver counted whilst enjoying the stunning views west to Hengistbury Head and Purbeck.

Couldn't locate any Purple Sandpipers today, but they can hide very well among the rocks, especially when it's this calm. 

Looking forward to the next visit already, although the forecast suggests it may be a little windy for the coast this week, and unfortunately from a NW or W direction, both generally very unhelpful when seawatching in Hants.

A Day on the Marsh

 Treated myself to a day off today! Work is always sparse in the winter, so, wanting to make the most of the last windless day of the current spell, I've pushed what work I do have into the next three days and today I had a very pleasant full lap of the Keyhaven/Pennington area, heading west to Sturt Pond, and east to the far side of Normandy Lagoon.

In order to maximise the rising tide later in the day I started off by parking at Oxey (at 0800) and taking the inland route to Keyhaven.

Going inland first also meant landbirds were a bit more vocal, and a Chiffchaff and both the regular woodpeckers were heard and the potentially difficult Jay also put in an appearance.

Headed off towards the New Lane area, via scanning the Keyhaven reedbeds (no Bearded Tits though, not sure they've been seen this winter there) and very birdy Avon Flood.

Plenty too around Cut Bridge, including the regular tame Turnstones.

And also a fair bit on Sturt Pond, which isn't always the case. Treated myself to a take out sausage ciabatta and cup of tea from the Lighthouse Café, and settled down with them for what I was hoping would be a busy seawatch. Ten minutes of absolutely nothing later I gave up and headed back to Cut Bridge, scanning the empty sea all the while. So often in Hampshire the sea lets you down when you are hoping to get a decent day list and are relying on it for bonus species.

Virtually all my Brent Geese at Barton are fly bys so it's nice to see a decent flock on the deck at close range for a change.

Even nicer when scanning through them, checking for first winters (of which there a very poor six out of about 200 birds) reveals a nice Pale-bellied Brent. Only a handful make it to Hants each year, and it's definitely the best looking of the Brent subspecies. 

And so at about 1115 I finally made it onto the seawall, and soon after was treated to the brilliant spectacle of a pair of Peregrines hunting a racing pigeon. Have often seen them hunting in pairs here, the male seemingly providing a distraction to help the female with the catch (once I saw the male "accidentally" catch the prey and get a total kicking from the female for his audacity!)

 

Eyes on the prize

A near miss

Getting closer

Got it!!

As Mr P (who did most of the work) looks on from above

The lagoons were full of ducks and geese, quite a few waders too, including a total of 245 Golden Plover, but not including Ruff, which I just could not dig out despite a fair amount of searching.

Plenty more to keep it all on its toes too: one of a pair of Ravens cleared a large part of Fishtail Lagoon - even the adult Great Black-backed Gull that had been trying its luck there backed off and kept a respectful distance.

And it's rarely long down there before a Marsh Harrier comes through causing trouble.

Heading on round to Oxey and it continued to be busy, on the lagoons and beach at least, the sea had very little. Amongst the waders on the beach was a nice flock of 24 Bar-tailed Godwits, a species which seems to be thin on the ground this winter (I haven't seen any reports of this many, not that that many reports come out of the area, considering its popularity).

A pair of Eider, my first of the year (my first year tick of the day), were fairly distantly on the saltmarsh, and the seemingly reliable Spotted Redshanks were on Oxey Lagoon.

A count of 15 Mediterranean Gulls (all bar one were adults) in Oxey Lake was an excellent number for January, not a species I was that confident of getting today, but one that will soon be numerous again.

Round onto Normandy Marsh the excellent birding continued. The overwintering Little Stint took a while to reveal itself, but three Goldeneye (including the still flirty male), four Greenshanks and 14 Avocets were much more straightforward.

Another Chiffchaff was calling, two Peregrines were around (presumably the same), causing more mayhem, although I couldn't find a Merlin (reported here recently).

Did have a big surprise when a scan of the Lymington River Estuary off to the east revealed my second (and only other) year tick of the day in the shape of four loafing Spoonbills.

And an even bigger surprise when eight more emerged behind and left of them, these actively feeding.

Spoonbill and Little Stint were actually the last two additions to an excellent day list. Had hoped for a couple or so more on the walk back to the car through woods and fields, but it wasn't to be. Can't really complain though, with a day list of 87 in January being a pretty good effort on foot.

Nice to see masses of birds, and I'll definitely allow myself a few more trips this year!

Making do nicely

It's more than a week since I sent my scope away, and still no word on whether it's made it to Austria yet . . . which is, of course, all very frustrating, but life, birding and patching goes on, and has worked out better than expected.

Had a couple of mornings in really local bits of the New Forest (although if I'm honest, still not so local that I'd have done them by bike, if I owned one that is). Nice to see decent numbers of thrushes, mostly Redwings, but also the other four regular species.

Fieldfare was less cooperative than the others!

Not all the attempts at photography quite went to plan (even less so than usual!).

Marsh Tit (in case you're wondering)

After Tuesday morning being a densely foggy waste of time and a full day of work on Wednesday, Thursday I had a nice patch walk in the morning. Nice yes, but oh so frustrating without a scope: plenty of stuff out to, and on the, sea that was out of range with just bins. I don't necessarily use the scope that often, but it is still a bit of a bind not having it for those times it's required.

So that evening I finally decided I WOULD listen to Mrs K, and dug around in the loft for my old Opticron Classic IF-2 scope (I was sure it wouldn't be there, and if it was wouldn't be any use), so old that they haven't made them for 18 years! I didn't expect much, but took it out Friday aaaand . . . fair to say I was quietly impressed. Narrow field of view aside it was optically perfectly adequate. After an hour at Barton I had a compulsive complete change of tack and headed east to the farthest reaches of my #LocalBigYear circle, to Sowley Pond, a site I used to visit regularly (in fact 35 years ago I briefly worked on Sowley Estate) but haven't been to for a few years. It's so much on the edge of the circle in fact, that only one half of the pond is actually IN the circle. But that half held Goosander and Mandarin. Pochard was in the wrong half, but by standing inside the circle and looking out I could see them, so I was having it! Three decent species for the local list. Pochard is a tough one anywhere else locally.

Then yesterday (Saturday) it was back to Barton for 1½ hrs at the western end of patch before a load more work. Too bad I didn't have longer because the sea was dead calm, like glass, and actually had a load of birds on it. Highlight was a mega count of 75 Great Crested Grebes, about three times more than my previous highest count here, and the Opticron performed well enough that I could unfortunately rule out Red-necked for all of them. Also half a dozen Shags (Barton is easily the best site in Hampshire for them), 3 Red-throated Divers, a Guillemot and a Common Scoter. Just west of the little shopping parade a couple of Water Rails were heard from the damp scrubby undercliff (a seemingly regular site for them, despite the unlikely look of the habitat), where there was also a Chiffchaff.

And then this morning I had a really very enjoyable session following my usual route east to Hordle Cliff. Unlike yesterday, the sea, whilst still calm, had a bit of chop to it todays, but even so seemed to have far fewer birds (I could I find one GC Grebe).

The golf course pools miraculously held the female Wigeon again, after several absences. Maybe she's just been hiding in the vegetation or behind a bank.

Made my way slowly along to Hordle Cliff, where I was extremely surprised to find, feeding in a field in a decent flock of 57 Curlews, the Whimbrel that I'd seen briefly on New Year's Day. Often out of view in the long grass or the wrong side of the slope I nevertheless managed to at least get some distant record shots of it this time.

Oddest record of the morning was this adult Common Gull (not a species seen with reliable regularity here anyway) on the golf course, with an apparently misshapen head!

Had vague plans for a little more wandering in the next few days, but with the calm conditions set to continue until midweek at least it seems a shame not to make the most of them on patch, where the year list is ticking along nicely at 79, but still has plenty of potential for additions.

#LocalBigYear stands at 125.

Slippery Slope

 As I've said before, the intention this year is to see a little more of the local area, rather than a blinkered pursuit of a patch list at Barton. I'll still be focussing on there, but I've realised it's getting me out of practice with a lot of stuff, and I don't want to forget wader jizz, duck calls and the like.

This week I've had a couple of nice walks in the New Forest around the home village, seeing nice stuff such as Brambling, Firecrest and Crossbill and generally just enjoying some nice pleasant birding.

And a visit to Barton Common, a bit of patch I don't check out often enough turned up a nice, if furtive, Dartford Warbler for the patch year list.

A lot of this has been prompted by the rather annoying matter of being without a scope, my not-so-trusty Swarovski having fogged up for the third time in a year, and the fourth time in the 5½ years I've had it. Everyone I've spoken to agrees with me that really the most sensible and economical thing for Swarovski to do would be to cut their losses and just replace what is clearly a fundamentally flawed bit of kit. Everyone except Swarovski that is, and so it's on its way to Austria again, and I'm left binocular birding again. I'm loathe to be too critical of Swaro, their customer service is seemingly way ahead of their competitors, but . . .

Anyway, scope or no scope, it has been my intention to visit the old patch (Pennington, etc) a bit more often and after an early week trip to Normandy Marsh, where the wintering Little Stint was among the rewards, I heard yesterday evening that Efford Lake, Pennington held a Black-necked Grebe. Which presented a dilemma. Whilst, as said, a visit was on the cards, I'm not sure Saturday would've been the natural choice, Monday would make more sense. And going today would basically just be dirty twitching. HOWEVER . . . Black-necked Grebe is a species that has always eluded me there (records are infrequent and unpredictable) and so first thing this morning

In the event it was a nice walk, I got there as early as daylight would allow and could therefore leave before the worst of the crowds, and the still conditions meant the sea was like a mirror and I could see with bins that it held none of the stuff I hoped it would and was worried I might not be able to clearly identify. But plenty was seen, as it always is there, including ten new for the year list (actually not all seen because, like many, I'm happy to go with a heard-only).

Then late afternoon, after a bit of work, popped down to have a squiz at more flat calm sea off Barton. 24+ Purple Sandpipers were on the rocks and there was quite a bit on the sea, mostly gulls but also a raft of 23 Great Crested Grebes (a huge number for there), which contained a single Common Scoter, but it was hard work without a scope so the next three weeks (or however long) is going to be rather testing.

The scoter was the day's 11th year tick, taking the year list to 118. Strictly speaking that's a #LocalBigYear list of 118, but I'm not sure whether going to more places than usual is really in the spirit of this excellent initiative! At least they are still very local, and I guess if I'm travelling a similar distance (or less) as I would to Barton (although I often tie that in with work, so no extra miles are done). And therein lies the slippery slope. Having sort of changed my plans for that grebe, even in a very minor way, have I now started taking this Big Year just a little TOO seriously? I really don't want to get in the habit of chasing after stuff at places I wouldn't otherwise have visited. Maybe I should've let the first one go? I suspect that once spring starts Barton will prove enough of a lure, that I'll worry what I'm missing if I go elsewhere.

We shall see.

(Slightly) Further Afield

 As alluded to previously, I sort of promised myself I'd go to local sites beyond Barton a bit more this year, and figured I may as well get cracking as soon as possible, so have strayed a little this week. Have still managed a few Barton visits this week (helps that a lot of my work - such as it is at this time of year - is within patch boundaries) but also made a point of getting out into the New Forest proper: we actually live within the National Park boundary, but I get criminally lazy about exploring the Forest itself, it's always something I'll get round to another day, but rarely actually do (being so patch fixated doesn't help).

This beauty has probably been the highlight, even if the pictures don't do it any sort of justice; it put on quite a show. Could never tire of a Hen Harrier, or any harrier, and always special to see a male.

A morning was spent in one of the core ancient woodland areas of the New Forest, where Bramblings were abundant, with upwards of 300 seen in total. Most were in the treetops, or else right by the road and every time I got close a car, or a group of cyclists inexplicably shouting at each other two yards apart, would go past and flush them all up, but eventually I managed to creep up on a flock of about 30 for some vaguely passable pics.

Three in this pic, honest

A different three

About 25 Crossbills seen and heard included some nicely perched up, but they were horrible to photograph in the dull light. These are the best of a bad bunch and have been lightened as much as possible, or else they'd be a lot worse. Some singing going on, and plenty of entertaining aerial squabbling. This is a species I rather embarrassingly didn't see at all last year, but this after loads of sightings in 2020, when there was an influx into the village in midsummer and I got them at home most days.

Both pics 65x zoom plus full crop plus major lightening!

Several each of Treecreeper and Nuthatch were seen, but photographing these was virtually beyond me. It was a big surprise that anything is in focus in the Nuthatch picture. Just too bad it's not the Nuthatch. But still better than anything I managed with the several Marsh Tits. Didn't come close with either Firecrest! Another nice record, albeit heard only, was a very vocal Goshawk not too far away in a stand of conifers. I didn't try too hard to locate it, preferring to leave it in peace.

Efforts at Barton have added another 19 to the patch year list (69 now), including Black-throated Diver (two records last year), Firecrest (one last year) and Chiffchaff (my first winter record there). Also the wintering Purple Sandpipers (26 of them) put in an appearance - they move between here and Dorset depending on the tides and sea state (the rocks are often unusable for them due to surf), but are regular enough, I just don't always get to check all the groynes.

Also the Little Grebe, which must have been lurking in the remnants of rushes on the roadside pools the whole time; doesn't say a lot for my skills on New Year's Day, but managed to sneak up on it for the year tick and a poor photo.

Absolute highlight of patch this week, however, wasn't even a year tick: what was presumably the same Marsh Harrier as I saw on 1st went over again, headed towards Hengistbury again, but on a much nicer day, and directly overhead. Even I managed to get some half reasonable photos for a change! Like I say, something special about a male harrier!