A long overdue full days birding. Keyhaven and Pennington Marshes with Samuel and Ephraim. Our target bird was the Long-billed Dowitcher. We arrived at Lower Pennington Lane before 08:00 but no parking spaces here so we headed around to Keyhaven Quay. On route we bumped into Paul who could not commit to a full day as he had an appointment with his "super 'oops". We found parking spaces much easier to come by here and headed off along the sea wall towards Butts Lagoon. On route we mostly ignored the good variety of waders on show. On arrival at Butts we all connected with our target bird the Long-billed Dowitcher. We enjoyed some good scope views as it fed with a couple of Snipe. A Little Stint had been reported on Keyhaven Lagoon so we decided to have a look for it. No luck despite a giving the lagoon a good going over. No other birders seemed to have connected with the stint either. Paul left us at this point and we decided to have a wander along the sea wall to see what else we could find. A really good selection of waders were to be had including; Long-billed Dowitcher, Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Golden Plover, Ringed Plover, Little-ringed Plover, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Greenshank, Turnstone, Sanderling, Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit. Not a bad haul and all from memory as Samuel was on notebook duties.
After a team meeting we decided to head to Acre's down. Not the best time of day or year for birding but on an enjoyable wander we did connect with; Crossbill, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Marsh Tit (heard only), Treecreeper, Goldcrest, Redstart.
The butterflies and dragonflies probably outdid the birds with the following; Silver-washed Fritillary (8), Large Skipper (3), Brimstone (5), Peacock (1), Green-veined White (1), Small Whites, Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns. List from Samuels notebook
Dragonflies; Golden-ringed Dragonflies and Keeled Skimmers.
Finally a visit to the "Raptor Watchpoint". 3 or 4 Common Buzzards were all we could manage here. On our walk to the watchpoint a small herd of fallow deer was nice to see.
A full list of the birds we saw in Hampshire.
Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Shelduck, Shoveler, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Buzzard, Kestrel, Moorhen, Coot, Oystercatcher, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Ruff, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Sanderling, Snipe, Turnstone, Black-tailed Godwit, Long-billed Dowitcher, Curlew, Redshank, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Gull, Common Tern, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Skylark, Swallow, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Redstart, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Treecreeper, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin, Linnet, Crossbill,
heard only: Wren, Marsh Tit
Total 66 inc heard only
A great day out, not sure this post does it justice. My pics below certainly do not!
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| juv Little-ringed Plover |
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| Long-billed Dowitcher with Redshank |
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| Curlew Sandpiper with Black-tailed Godwit |
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| Curlew Sandpiper with Dunlin |
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