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Sunday 5th December 2021

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I met up with Ian at Inchmery for our WeBS count. Birding highlights included two White-tailed Eagles together out on the saltmarsh appearing quite amorous. It looked like our male G393 and one of the large females, perhaps G547.

White-tailed Eagles video by Alan Lewis

Finding the Scaup out in the creek south of the quay, around a mile from Black Water, was a surprise and we enjoyed good counts of 209 Grey Plover and 53 Pintail.

The excitement highlight was getting a call from Alan who was at the Sailing Club watching three Velvet Scoter feeding out on the sea.

We had just finished the Inchmery part of the WeBS count and so we raced back to Needs Ore, thankfully the scoter were still on show as we joined Alan, Simon and Dimitri at the Sailing Club. We had a few minutes of the scoter on the sea before they flew off east revealing their striking white secondaries. A patch tick.

Velvet Scoter video by Alan Lewis

Velvet Scoter breed on Scandinavian coasts particularly northern Norway and they winter along the Baltic Coasts and some reach the south and east coasts of the UK. These three are almost certainly the birds that have been off Brownwich and Hill Head for the last two weeks, only 6 miles to the north east as the scoter flies.

Philip, who was watching the scoter from Lepe as they sat on the sea opposite the Coastguard Cottages watched a fourth fly west through the middle of the Solent well out from Mary Monts.

The Needs Ore part of the WeBS count included the Scaup again on Black Water. Once we’d finished the WeBS count we decided to do a bit of sea watching from Mary Monts. A Razorbill appeared about 10 metres off the shoreline and then a second bird did the same thing. The lack of vertical white line on the bill suggests that this is a 1^st winter bird.

We picked up my Black-necked Grebe from yesterday afternoon which Alan had just seen distantly from the Sailing Club and amazingly a Slavonian Grebe swam in to join it.

I spent an hour at Park Shore looking through the Brent Goose flock. Just like yesterday the geese were in an awkward position just north of Park Farm where I could only get distant views and where the long grass obscured lots of them. I did, however, manage to pick out a Pale-bellied Brent Goose. A pair of Redpoll flew over as I was searching through the geese.

Saturday 4th December 2021

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The regular Bullfinch pair flitted ahead of me as I walked along the main hedge. Three Black-tailed Godwit were flushed from Venner South before they headed over to the Gins. After a September peak of 40 birds on De L’Orne Flood it is down to single figures again although in December last year 40-50 birds were seen on Exbury Fields on a couple of high tides.

Behind De L’Orne on the saltmarsh a lovely adult male Marsh Harrier quartered along the river edge and a White-tailed Eagle appeared briefly low down over the river before landing out of sight. The female Marsh Harrier later dropped onto the edge of Venner Wigeon Fields.

On Black Water the 1^st winter female Scaup was still present associating with four Tufted Duck. This was the most active I’ve seen her, she was diving every 10 seconds or so. The first Greenshank I’ve seen for a few visits was on De L’Orne Scrape, presumably here to winter.

Back at the car 10 Skylark flew over Shore Hide heading back towards Warren Shore Saltmarsh.

A two hour sea watch produced a lovely and unexpected Black-necked Grebe, my first winter record of this species at Needs Ore. Other than the summer plumaged bird on Venner in July this is the first Black-necked Grebe at Needs Ore for a few years. They used to winter here regularly often appearing inside the river mouth.

The run of auk sightings continued with another three Razorbill distantly heading east

A group of Red-breasted Merganser (6 female types, one male) were quickly followed by five Eider also heading west (3 males, 2 females).

I had planned to walk out along the spit to check on the Purple Sandpiper, to listen out for a Snow Bunting and to do the Avian Flu checks but the tide was still high (albeit falling) and so there were lots of ducks and geese feeding in the flooded outflow channel and I would have undoubtedly flushed them. I headed back to the Sailing Club instead.

A single Golden Plover and at least five Knot were in amongst the 200 Grey Plover on Inchmery Saltmarsh and a Razorbill showed distantly in the river mouth. Eight Common Gull were roosting almost all of the way to Lepe.

I finished with an hour at Park Shore. A Red Kite was circling over the fields towards Bergerie Farm and there were two Cattle Egrets together in the fields around Park Farm although no sign of anything more interesting in with the Dark-bellied Brent Geese.

November 2021, Winter 2021/2022

Sunday 28th November 2021

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This morning I was co-leading a HOS walk with Adam. Before we met the group at 10am I walked to the hides to see what was around. My weather app said it was -1 but feeling like -5, definitely a five layer kind of morning.

Walking into Venner hide I met up with Brian F just as one of the White-tailed Eagles headed straight towards the hide giving me my closest views to date.

This is our regular male G393. He was collected at roughly 10 weeks old from a nest on Mull in June 2019. He was then released from the Isle of Wight at the end of August 2019 when around 20 weeks old. He’s now entering his fourth year. Breeding in 2022 is probably unlikely for G393, he hasn’t got a mate and even though fourth year birds can breed it’s rare. Given the lack of females at a suitable age it may be a number of years before we see a breeding attempt on the Beaulieu River.

Thankfully the eagles were still present when I took the group back later, in fact there were three of them by the time we returned.

There were seven Spoonbill resting on the river, they stayed long enough for the group to see them before they headed off up river, they all appeared to be adults. This is the largest group I’ve seen since the 13 on Venner on 14^th March. There were also 33 Shelduck roosting on the river.

I was pleased to see a colour-ringed Redshank again on the saltmarsh near the Sluice Gate. It was the same 1^st winter individual which I had first seen on De L’Orne Scrape more than a month ago, on 23rd October, it appears to be wintering here. As we were finishing the HOS walk the pair of Peregrines performed nicely above the Sailing Club.

After lunch I met up with Ian and we headed to Park Shore. As we drove down Park Lane I noticed one of the Cattle Egrets in the field around Park Farm.

On the shoreline we watched a pair of divers, probably Great Northern, headed east well out into the Solent, too distant to identify.

The undoubted highlight of the day was a redhead Goosander which I picked up as it swam slowly right up against one of the shingle islands close in shore. We walked closer for photographs but it slipped away somehow, I eventually saw it again flying east but distantly. Away from inland reservoirs and ponds Goosander records are scarce and this may well be a cold weather movement. It is my first record for the site.

November 2021, Winter 2021/2022

Monday 22nd November 2021

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After a week away with Sarah and the dogs I was keen to get back down to the patch especially as Adam had seen a Snow Bunting on Warren Shore on the Thursday.

On the way to the beach I heard a Dartford Warbler churring near Pullen Marsh and a Green Woodpecker flew up from close to me along the Beach Gorse Bushes. I later saw a second Dartford Warbler along Pullen Walk.

I walked the spit but unfortunately there was no sign of the Snow Bunting. Ian had also walked to Gull Island on the Friday without luck. It was not without reward however as the Purple Sandpiper which I found 11 days ago appeared again right in front of me as I was roughly level with the Cottages. It was feeding on its own along the muddy ledge which replaces the sloping shingle beach just beyond Teal Point.

I sat and watched it for ten minutes or more, it was a 1^st winter bird with new adult scapulars and mantle feathers but with retained juvenile coverts which were neatly fringed white. It fledged earlier this year probably in Norway.

1st winter Purple Sandpiper photo by Ian Williamson

13 Black-tailed Godwits flew over the Cottages and I counted around six Skylark and five Meadow Pipits on the saltmarsh. A Mistle Thrush flying down Warren Lane was the first I’ve seen for a while.

On the sea there were 3 Great Crested Grebes, the Slavonian Grebes haven’t returned yet. Last year I didn’t see any until the 17^th December. A female Red-breasted Merganser headed west while a male rested on the sea.

An unusually large flock of 60 Stock Dove wheeled around for several minutes over Wigeon Fields, the biggest group I’ve seen. Throughout the day a White-tailed Eagle was often in view, there have been up to five seen at once here in the last week.

White-tailed Eagle photo by Brian Fairbrother

A very late Common Darter was basking on a fence post near Black Water.

The female Scaup was still present on Black Water associating with a male Pochard and a female Tufted Duck. This rather distant photo gives a good comparison between Scaup and Tufted Duck. The Scaup has a pale cheek patch, deeper chest, larger more rounded head, no tuft and a more extensive white blaze.

Wigeon adult drake moulting out of eclipse

There was no sign of any Greenshank around De L’Orne, the autumn migrants have moved on and it remains to be seen if any will stay for the winter. 12 Avocet were roosting on the far side of the river opposite the Royal Southampton Yacht Club.

A drake Teal was wearing a bill saddle on Venner. I sent the photo to Graham who commented – “the Teal was ringed in south west Portugal at the Tagus River Estuary Nature Reserve. Unfortunately the Teal cannot be individually identified, because there are 2 digits in the middle of the saddle, which cannot be read in your photo. We tend to think of Teal and other migrant duck as coming here for the winter to escape harsher conditions in Iceland, Scandinavia and Russia. However, large numbers of migrant duck carry on to spend the winter in parts of south western Europe. It would be interesting to know if this Teal went to Portugal for its first winter and maybe now it is a more experienced bird it feels able to winter here. Or maybe it is just passing through Needs Ore and it will be back in Portugal in a few days’ time.”