Today was the first day of our Peregrine monitoring. Ian and I had a shift from 8am-11am and so I got there at 6:30am to have 90 minutes around the hides before heading to the sailing club.
It was pretty cold with the wind having swung around to the north and it felt as though spring migration may be halted as a result. Yesterday’s Reed Warbler was singing again near B Water gate and a Blackcap and a Cetti’s Warbler were singing from where JV hide used to be. As I was heading back across the cattle field I heard a Sedge Warbler behind me, I headed back. I tracked it down to the white flowering Blackthorn near B Water hide and although I got a recording of its song I didn’t see it. This is my earliest ever Sedge Warbler.
an early Reed Warbler
I chatted with Clay on the way back and so I was slightly late back to the sailing club to join Ian. The Peregrine monitoring was uneventual although not for a Woodpigeon who appeared from the west in the talons of the male. The male handed over his catch to the larger female and she spent the next 90 minutes devouring it while the male stood with back turned 20 yards away.
I had to leave earlier today and I was almost home when, at 11:42am , Clay reported a pair of Little Ringed Plover on the pools near MMs house. I quickly u-turned and texted Clay and Ian to ask them to stay on the birds if possible. Thankfully they were still present when I arrived and I joined Ian at around 12:10pm.
Little Ringed Plover pair bottom left photo by Ian Williamson
Amazing to think these attractive waders may have been in Senegal just a few days ago. They certainly looked tired as they rested on the mud below the sea-watching bush.
I was meeting Adrian Bicker at Lepe at 10am to help him with his Nathusius Pipistrelle research. To give me a few hours at NO first I got there for sunrise. I headed over to the beach and it was clear that there were lots of newly arrived Linnets. It was also the lowest tide I’ve seen so far and there were 68 Mediterranean Gulls strung out along the shoreline. They were all adults other than a single 1st year bird, perhaps their breeding success wasn’t great last year or the younger birds were elsewhere. Along with increased numbers of Linnet I heard at least five Siskin overhead.
A Blackcap was singing opposite the gate near the NP hide and the two Wheatears which had been along the fence line had moved on. I scanned from the gate before the cattle field and noticed a distant raptor on the fence posts beyond JV hide. I switched to scope and was delighted to see it was a Red Kite. Heading around towards JV hide I managed closer views before it took to the air mobbed by crows. It spent the next few minutes quartering over the water meadows behind B Water. There has been a noticeable passage through Hampshire in late March and this is only the second one I’ve seen at NO.
Red Kite
Out from DL’O hide the Black-headed Gulls were showing interest in the rafts with 35 of them congregating in the area. 15 Avocets were feeding, broadly in pairs, on the lagoon and on DL’O scrape. One of the Avocets had colour rings which confirmed that Graham had ringed it at NO as a chick in July 2014. In its first year it made a tour of RSPB Reserves to the east, being seen at Pagham Harbour, Minsmere and Titchwell, before returning to Hampshire. It has returned to NO every summer and it has once been reported wintering in Poole Harbour in Dorset. The last sighting was in April last year when Graham saw it at NO.
Avocets
There were at least 10 pairs of Lapwing in the fields either side of the walking trail hedge with several of them already incubating eggs.
An adult Great Black-backed Gull came over low down. In certain lights mantle colouration can be difficult to assess and unless size and bill shape is easy to judge it can be tricky to separate Great Black-backed Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull. A useful non mantle shade ID feature is the amount of white in the primary tips. Great Black-backed Gull has extensive white mirrors on both P9 and P10. Lesser Black-backed Gull has a very slim small white spot on P10 only.
incubating Lapwing, Great Black-backed Gull and Oystercatchers
I got back to the car at 9:15am and headed over to Lepe to meet Adrian. I am running three AudioMoths for him. I need to change the batteries, reset the AudioMoths and post Adrian the SD cards back every three weeks. We installed one at Lepe and two at NO, at the Warden’s Hut and on the beach fence-line. I’ve also ordered one for my own use and will move it around the reserve to see what other species we have. There has been very little bat monitoring here in the past.
Back at NO the first Swallow of the year drifted past me at S hide, always a thrill. There were at least five others during the afternoon with all of them heading east with some purpose. Presumably they cross over to Lepe and head inland at some stage after that.
first Swallow of the year
It was a particularly high spring tide and at least 47 Curlew were driven down the river to roost on G Island. A Peacock and Red Admiral were on the wing in sheltered sunny spots and a Spotted Redshank called in the distance.
Highlight of the day was a distant White-tailed Eagle which appeared over Inchmery being mobbed by a Buzzard, which it dwarfed. The eagle drifted over in the B Water direction perhaps over Buckler’s Hard and St Leonard’s Grange. Two Sandwich Terns were calling over the Wardens Hut as I tried to relocate the eagle.
White-tailed Eagle photos by Ian Williamson
To finish I headed back over to B Water. As I got to the hides junction a Reed Warbler jumped up into the bushes opposite. It quickly disappeared but started singing nearby. This is, by two weeks, the earliest Reed Warbler I’ve ever seen.
With a forecast for south-westerlies gusting to 42mph I headed to the beach for a 7am start. Ian met me there and Joost, Simon and Dimitri also joined later.
On the way down W Lane I got my stuff ready at the pull over near the gate. This gave me the chance to listen for Nuthatch in the woodland opposite. I was pleased to record one calling just a few seconds before I was ready to give up, a patch tick and a difficult bird at NO.
Down at the beach I was tight in against the large bush which meant that I was nicely sheltered. Most birds were heading east with the highlights in a four hour sea-watch being 2 Gannets, 8 Kittiwakes, 10 Eider, a Sandwich Tern and three Sand Martins in off the sea. Gannet is a patch tick but overall it was perhaps a disappointing return given the conditions. Having said that it is probably still a few weeks early and birders at the usually better Milford Shelter had a similar tally.
distant Gannet
My earliest Wheatears over the years have all been in the final week of March and so Dimitri and I headed back to the car via the fence-line to see if we could find one. Dimitri noticed a passerine running along the base of the fence and right on cue it was a female Wheatear. A male had been seen in this area yesterday, males have a blacker face mask, are darker blue and with blacker wings.
newly arrived female Wheatear top photo by Ian Williamson
Over on JV 15 Black-tailed Godwit were feeding at the water’s edge with some in full summer plumage and others still to start their moult. There were two more Sand Martins hawking over BW and on the wet fields behind I was delighted to relocate the female Garganey just over 1km from where it was first seen last Sunday. There are plenty of wet areas here which are obscured from view and given the distance it had moved it’s not surprising that it had gone missing.
summer and winter plumaged Black-tailed Godwits
Out from the Sailing club three Knot roosted facing into the wind and it was clear that the number of Dark-bellied Brent Geese had fallen significantly. A male Wheatear showed briefly in the gorse and a female Red-breasted Merganser flew into land in front of us.
I pulled over just after the entrance gate to listen for Nuthatch, no luck today although a Goshawk was calling from the woodland opposite and male and female Muntjac crossed the track in front of me, the male showing his stripy face and horns.
Muntjac
With a moderate south westerly blowing I decided to head to the beach first. I could hear Water Rail and Cetti’s Warbler from the smaller pond near MMs house and on the way over a male Linnet was in full out song, when the female arrived they flew off together.
male Linnet photo by Ian Williamson
The sea was reasonably active with a steady stream of Mediterranean Gulls heading west, 25 in all. First new bird for the year was a group of three Common Scoter, 2 males and a female. They were flying west to start with but turned towards me before swinging around to head east. Their paler primaries stood out.
The first Sandwich Tern since the 5th January headed west soon afterwards. Not sure if this is a newly arrived migrant or one of the wintering birds appearing again.
Through the binoculars a group of three gulls caught my attention as their flight was particularly buoyant and tern like. I half wondered about Kittiwakebut quickly discounted this through the scope as they were much smaller than an accompanying Black-headed Gull and one of them had a full black hood. Also obvious were rounded white wings tips, black underwings and a noticeable white trailing edge to the secondaries, all confirming Little Gull, a patch tick. Several have been heading past the Isle of Wight recently but far fewer come inside the island to be seen off NO.
Common Scoter, 2 males and a female
Another unexpected bird was next, an auk heading rapidly east showing a brownish colouration, messy underwings and a pointed head profile. Guillemot was another patch tick and a NO rarity.
It was around now that it started to rain and it did so on and off for the rest of the day. A band of showers had been forecast to go south of the Isle of Wight but with a northerly shift this long thin band of clouds spent the rest of the day dropping rain over the Hampshire coast. Back at S hide I noticed a male Chaffinch with a mild bacterial infection of the foot (bumblefoot).
Chaffinch
After a coffee in the car I headed over to the hides. I’ve been double checking young Pied Wagtails throughout March hoping for a spring migrant alba and today…success! A lovely pristine White Wagtail around the flooded areas on the fields west of the walking trail. Clean demarcation from black head to pale grey mantle as well as grey rump and white flanks. Not a full species but lovely to see.
White Wagtail
While in DL’O hide a Spotted Redshank called ‘chew-it’ as it flew over and a Sparrowhawk dashed past just 10 feet in front of the window. I recorded my highest count of Red-breasted Merganser this winter with two pairs distantly off the sailing club. A good end to a really great day!
Birding with a Sketchbook 