Water Features

 After about a ten day gap, for various reasons, have been back on patch the last two mornings, and there are already subtle changes in the avifauna. And in one corner of patch, slightly less subtle changes in the landscape (more of which in a bit).

Yesterday morning was gloriously sunny, although still with a wintry nip in the air when walking into the wind, such as it was. I wasn't in the best of moods, also for various reasons, and very tired, so wasn't as attentive as I could have been, but it was hard not to notice the increase in Skylarks (both singing and generally buzzing around the golf course and clifftop) from previous visits, and also in Meadow Pipits. The latter shouldn't be on the move properly for another 5 or 6 weeks, and are easy to pick up when migrating, so I suspect these have just wandered from the fields just inland. Both species were still conspicuous this morning, despite heavy cloud and light rain.

Stonechats seem to have dropped in numbers too, so maybe some of them have already headed off to some hill or moorland to the north.

Today I was in a far better mood despite the gloomier and damper conditions (these things aren't always possible to predict or reconcile, it's just the way it is).

A Kestrel showed nicely by the path at the start of the walk, frequently dropping to grab an earthworm.

I like that even after 40 years' birding I can still appreciate stuff like this, and that it can still set me up for a nice morning.

And so of water (aside from the enormous salty expanse to the south): there are two sets of pools on the golf course.

Those above, obvious very soon after taking the coast path east from the last car park, are the pools that have held a female Wigeon for a few weeks now (today it was flying about for the first time that I've seen, so maybe will depart soon), and which I always feel look good for a Little Bittern or Squacco Heron in spring (I can but dream, but the fact that one of the former was seen in a Barton garden in May 2003 means perhaps it's not such a wild one!).

The others are adjacent to the Milford road, and are where Little Grebe bred last year, and where previous post photos of that species, Cormorant and Mute Swan have been from. Last autumn the trees and shrubs that flanked the pools were often quite good for warblers (in a Barton way, not a Spurn way!) and so it was a little disappointing when late last year the golf club cleared most of that vegetation. But that was their prerogative, and just how it was, and in any case they still looked quite nice.

Photos taken around Christmas

Yesterday I walked over there to get Little Grebe on the day list and was horrified to find them digging huge amounts of mud out of one pool. Today I dared to look again, and there was a pump running and the water levels were about 2 feet down!! Fair to say it wasn't pretty.

Red line is where the water usually comes to, and until November the whole area around that line was dense sallow

But the weird thing is, there were more birds than usual. As well as the swans above, the Little Grebe was holding his ground.

A pair of Mallard were enjoying the new mud.

The usual gang of five Moorhens were making the best of things.

But best, and most bizarrely of all, there was, despite the disturbance, a Kingfisher. Have had it here before (and much more regularly on the other pools) in autumn, but this is only my second "spring" record on patch (the previous one was of a very unexpected copulating pair).

Anyway, for the time being, I'm remaining positive that the golf club are planning something lovely and bird-friendly for the pools, and that maybe that mud might come in handy in the next few weeks.

Much of the rest of today's walk was largely uneventful. Only ten Curlews on Hordle Cliff, with no attendant Whimbrel, and nothing yet going on offshore.

But back near the car, viewing the rocky groynes from the clifftop, and the Purple Sandpipers gave a nice flying display. Unless they fly they can be a bugger to count; in fact often they're impossible to see and it's easy to assume they're not there until they do this. And today I managed a pic which helped me confirm 33 birds were present.

With two of the five attendant Turnstones

A new site record count!! 

In fact, better than that, it turns out it's actually a new county record count 😃 I like Purps anyway, they're wonderfully charismatic birds, and have an excellent call, so it's nice to have such a good number on patch. Have a hunch the count may grow a little before winter is out.