sh4rpy's birding blog: Family Guy

A mid-week family break with daughter Becky, son in law Drew, grandson Joshua, grandaughter Amelie and darling wife Audrey. We stayed at Shorefields near Milford on Sea. Which is not too far from Keyhaven and Pennington Marshes. I wasn’t expecting too many birding opportunities but I did get out for at least a couple of hours every day. Unfortunaely for me I could not connect with a Black Tern, however, on Tuesday afternoon a family stroll along around Keyhaven and Pennington I noticed that there were a few more birders than usual. So of course I asked the question “much about?” “The Long-billed Dowitcher is back on the next pool” was the response. Luckily we were heading that way and sure enough there was the Long-billed Dowitcher now in winter plumage, in the company of 4 or 5 Redshank. Normally to jam in to this quality of bird would be a huge slice of luck but as I had “twitched” this particular bird several weeks ago I would have happily swapped it for a Black Tern. If presumably this is the same bird as I saw on August 3rd and was not seen since 23rd of August. I wonder where it went? I did not see this bird again on any of my further visits.
Several mainly early morning visits to Keyhaven and Pennington Marshes produced the following; Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit, Black-headed Gull, Blackbird, Canada Goose, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider, Gannet, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Greenshank, Grey Plover, Grey Wagtail, Guillemot, Heron, Herring Gull, House Martin, Lapwing, Lesser black-backed Gull, Linnet, Little Egret, Long-billed Dowitcher,Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Raven, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover, Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, Shelduck, Snipe, Sparrowhawk, Spotted Redshank, Starling, Swallow, Teal, Turnstone, Water Rail, Wheatear, Whitethroat, Wigeon.

At Shorefields mainly whilst sitting outside enjoying a nice cup of tea; Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Common Buzzard, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Green Woodpecker, Jackdaw, Magpie, Nuthatch, Robin, Willow Warbler Wood Pigeon.

Milford on Sea. An evening stroll with my better half along the cliff top and a quick look out to sea a Bonxie was harassing a Gannet. Also amongst the big boulders that I presume are there to protect the cliffs from erosion was a Rock Pipit. Later in the week I paid a late evening visit to the cliff top but this time I walked towards Barton on Sea. The light was fading fast but I still managed to connect with c30 Yellow Wagtails in amongst some cows. Also in the same field 3 Wheatear.

An early morning trip in to the New Forest with visits to Pig Bush and Shatterford; Jay, Marsh Tit, Song Thrush, Spotted Flycatcher, Stock Dove, Stonechat, Treecreeper, Wren, House Sparrow. Also Fallow Deer at Shatterford.

On a family visit to Blackwater Arboretum I was able to add the following to my “week list”; Crossbill, Goldcrest.

Kestrel was added to list on a trip to the IOW and Rook was seen but I don’t recall where!

Total species for the week = 84.