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!