Category: December 2021

I stopped at the Reedy Ditch layby hoping that I might bump into a Hawfinch again but no luck. It was cold and wintery and the trees were full of Redwing ‘bok’ calls and the more familiar high pitched plaintiff ‘tzeee’, there were at least 40 moving through.

Next stop was the Sailing Club where a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers were loitering in the river mouth and the juvenile female Peregrine was sat on a post on Gull Island again. Looking towards the Yacht Club 12 Avocet were feeding along the river edge, I later saw the same group feeding just over the sea wall on De L’Orne Scrape.

Looking offshore 5 Red-throated Divers included birds on the sea and also in flight. A Razorbill also headed west and there were another nine Red-breasted Mergansers heading east.

It was great to see a Shag on the sea. Compared to the much commoner Cormorants it was significantly blacker, with a shorter body above the water, a flash of yellow around the gape and a white chin. Nice to see it dive with an amazingly athletic leap before entering the water almost vertically.

On the saltmarsh 31 Cormorants, many with wings outspread, was my highest count at Needs Ore. They were strung out in a long line and then peeled away in small groups as the water levels rose.

40 Canada Geese were resting in the Middle Field and I quickly realised that there were six Russian White-fronted Geese with them! There were four adults and two 1^st winters. It’s nice to think that maybe two of these adults are returning birds from last year. The four birds that over-wintered last year tended to associate with the Greylags. I first saw them on the 19^th December 2020, a very similar arrival date.

On De L’Orne Scrape a Kingfisher flitted between fence posts and 30 Shelduck was a good count. A Great Black-backed Gull rested with the Shelduck and the wintering Greenshank fed with a handful of Redshank.

A Little Egret walked along in front of the hide, an area that Adam has cleared and cut short to attract grazing dabbling ducks. I’m hoping it might also attract a Water Pipit.

Around Black Water a pair of Magpies was slightly unusual, the female Scaup was still around. The bleating of the Teal, the constant ‘crecking’ of Gadwall and the occasional Wigeon whistle provides the sound track here.

Around Venner Island there were a handful of Pintail, three Pochard, a Tufted Duck and at least 6 Black-tailed Godwit feeding with the Curlew on Wigeon Fields.

In the hide Adam and I watched an amazing interaction between a female Marsh Harrier and a Brown Hare. The two were within 2 feet of each, staring. The Brown Hare barely moved the whole time while the Marsh Harrier rotated its head inquisitively leaning back and forward trying to work out what was going on. Eventually the Marsh Harrier jumped into the air leap-frogging the Brown Hare, the Brown Hare dashed away soon afterwards and the Marsh Harrier followed half-heartedly finally realizing it was too large a prey item.

A sea watch from Mary Monts produced a Guillemot and a Razorbill, four more Red-breasted Mergansers and an obliging Turnstone which I think is an adult as there is no moult contrast in the coverts which all look like adult type feathers lacking the neat buff fringe of retained juvenile feathers. Having said that the coverts all look worn which you wouldn’t expect if they were newly moulted adult feathers, lots to learn.

There has been a Red-necked Grebe at Pennington and one or two Long-tailed Ducks near Hill Head, I’ll cross my fingers and keep watching the sea!

I stopped near the Crop Strip field hoping for a Brambling. Ian had seen them here in the past, there have always been plenty of Chaffinches when I walk along this stretch. There’s no place to park here and so I would give it until the next car came down Warren Lane. I got out of the car and amazingly one of the first calls I heard was the wheezy buzz of a Brambling. It flew over several times, I didn’t see it as it was 7:45am and still pretty dark. Frustratingly by the time I had set up my sound recorder the bird had moved on.

Alan had seen a Hawfinch around Black Water House on Saturday and earlier in the year he had seen several others in this area. As I walked past the duck pond a Hawfinch flew over from the Bee Eater tree direction. I lost it as it headed towards the Droveway. I scanned the trees from several different viewpoints at several times during the day but no luck. It seems that there might be a very small population here with some food source attracting them.  

From the Reedy Ditch there was a good count of 18 Black-tailed Godwit feeding with a similar number of Curlew on Wigeon Fields.

A dark looking diver was sat out off Mary Monts. It was on the verge of being too far away to identify. The bill was held up tilted and it flew with an exaggerated vertical movement of the head. Undoubtedly a Red-throated Diver and a juvenile given the dark dusky head and neck. The only other sea based highlights were five Razorbill between the Sailing Club and Mary Monts and a male Eider heading west.

While I was sea-watching a Dartford Warbler called from the brambles and a couple of Green Woodpeckers were calling from the Pullen area.

On the way back to the car several Siskin were calling as they headed over the Wedge Field. As I arrived at the Sailing Club I could see a large group of Spoonbills on the marsh. There were 14 altogether, you can just about see them all in this photo. This is the only site in Hampshire which regularly records more than 10 Spoonbill.

The tide was 2.6m which was still high enough to ensure that the waders hadn’t dispersed too far although you’re never very close whatever the state of the tide. There were plenty of Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Grey Plover and nine Knot was good to see. Most of the high winter WeBS counts of Knot are from further east at Lepe.

Approximately 50 Linnet flew over the Saltmarsh towards Warren Shore. I keep listening out for Twite although they are a major rarity in Hampshire now. The juvenile Peregrine was sat on one of the signs on Gull Island, paler patches on the head and nape give away its age. It looks like a female from the large size. She was still there over an hour later when I returned to the car. It’ll be interesting to see if she is driven away by the adults.

A colour-ringed Curlew appeared on the saltmarsh on a raised section. I’ve sent the record away for more information although I’m not confident that I could have accurately recorded the colour combinations. I attempted a digiscoped iPhone shot, pretty awful but at extreme distances probably preferable to the camera.

One of the eagles put up the wildfowl from the Venner area and the Greylags settled on the marsh, there were 199 altogether.

I returned to the Reedy Ditch later in the afternoon hoping to get a Brambling call recorded and to see if I could re-locate the Hawfinch. No luck with either although I did find a calling Marsh Tit. Most of the Marsh Tits I’ve seen at Needs Ore have been along this short stretch of Warren Lane between Black Water House and the Paddock.

Eagle update – Adam has been in touch with Steve Egerton-Read at the White-tailed Eagle project. He confirms that over the last month there have been 13 different eagles on the Beaulieu River with a maximum of 8 on one day! It seems that four eagles have settled on the estate – G393 (our 2019 male), and 3 of the 2021 birds G547, G814 and G818.

I headed to the Sailing Club first in case Wednesday’s Lapland Bunting was still in the area. A Greenshank called in alarm from the Slice Gate Saltmarsh and there were 10 Avocet on the river up towards the Yacht Club. On the sea five Eider headed east and four headed west and soon afterwards I saw 12 on the sea. I don’t think there were duplicates and so this is 21 altogether and my highest count at Needs Ore. One of the White-tailed Eagles flew over the Warden’s Hut.

I met up with Alan who arrived at the Sailing Club having had the same idea about bumping into the Lapland Bunting. Throughout the morning day we estimated that there were seven Razorbill strung out along the coast. We also watched a summer plumaged Guillemot.

There were three Peregrines, the breeding pair and a juvenile sat out on Gull Island showing browner upperparts and streaked underparts. 

A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers arrived from the east. On the female above you can see the black tips to the greater coverts which form a black line across the white wing patch, Goosander lacks this line.

I saw my first divers of the winter and there were a minimum of four, possibly as many as eight. They were all Red-throated Divers with their bills consistently held upwards. The adults showed clean white heads and the juveniles were much duskier. In flight the characteristic head nodding action was evident. A couple showed nicely on the sea albeit distantly.

Before Alan arrived I did watch a distant diver which may well have been Black-throated  – neck held up straight so no sagging or head movement and with a more elongated profile due to projecting feet. Unfortunately too distant to be certain.

We decided to walk the spit to see if we could find the Lapland Bunting in amongst the Skylarks on Warren Shore. I made a quick trip to the hides first. 29 Mediterranean Gulls on De L’Orne Scrape was a good count for December and the female Scaup was still on Black Water. She has been here for nearly seven weeks now.

On our walk out on the spit we regularly saw groups of Skylarks, probably twelve of them altogether but there was no Lapland Bunting calling amongst them. We did bump into the 1^st winter Purple Sandpiper at point black range again.

On our way back to the car we watched a Dartford Warbler calling on Pullen Marsh and a Fieldfare shacking in the distance.

Alan headed off to Blashford for the gull roost and I stopped at the Reedy Ditch where a Goshawk powered through into Silver’s Copse. At the back of the Crop Strip field the Chaffinches were flitting in and out of the corn but no Brambling. I did see a Nuthatch in the far oaks, the first one I’ve actually seen (not just heard) and also a Treecreeper and a Jay.

Nine Spoonbill flew over the Reedy Ditch heading towards Black Water and two Snipe squelched as they flushed up from Warren Corner.

On Wigeon fields there were 70 Redwing, 300 Lapwing, 30 Curlew and seven Black-tailed Godwit. As I was about to leave I picked up two Cattle Egret with the heifers around Park Farm.

After Sunday’s excellent sea watching day I returned to Mary Monts this morning. Storm Barra had passed through and I half hoped that a Grey Phalarope or Little Auk might be possible. Unfortunately, the best I could manage was a Razorbill and a Shag both heading west. Two Rock Pipits were nearby on the edge of the strip of water that lies inside the shingle beach.

I headed to the Sailing Club for a rising mid tide to see what waders were gathering. I was probably a bit early, the tide was around 1.8m and still too low. A slightly unusual sight was four Little Grebe together on the edge of the river up towards the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. Just opposite the Yacht Club eight Avocet were gathered in their favourite position.

I checked the sea in line with the eastern end of the Isle of Wight which is where the scoter were on Sunday. Amazingly the Velvet Scoter were there again. A Slavonian Grebe, a drake Eider and another Razorbill were sheltering in the slightly calmer river mouth.

At 10:30am I was stood in the shelter of the Sailing Club under the eaves when a confident ‘teu’ call grabbed my attention. I immediately thought Snow Bunting and a second ‘teu’ was followed by a lovely rippling trill. A confident bunting shape flew towards me against the bright sky. I had expected to see white underwings and black wing tips, I didn’t but the backlit silhouette probably made this difficult. It flew over the Sailing Club and so I wasn’t able to see which way it went. It had disappeared by the time I ran around to the side of the building. In an effort to relocate it I walked to the Cottages and then along the Old Spit back to the Warden’s Hut. I then drove back down Warren Lane and walked out along the shingle spit. Unfortunately there was no further sign of the bunting. I had a sound recording and so I felt confident that the identify would be confirmed later.

From along the spit I watched a White-tailed Eagle over De L’Orne and then a second eagle came closer and then flew out to the Isle of Wight. Soon afterwards four Spoonbill passed close by heading west.

I returned from the spit just before the tide got too high and I decided I would try the private areas around Great Marsh to check for any wrecked birds. Nothing unusual although I did see my fourth Razorbill of the day just out from the Beach House.

I finished the day with a trip to the hides. Yesterday’s mid-day high tide in conjunction with Storm Barra had seen De L’Orne South flooded. Adam had to head down urgently to open the gate to Lapwing South so that the cattle could escape the rapidly submerging field.

The female Scaup was still present on Black Water but the best part was seeing the flooded fields truly flooded and with lots of wildfowl and waders enjoying the new ‘lake’. Three Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit together, the middle bird is a 1^st winter with retained juvenile coverts and tertials.

I’ve included a couple of video clips of the view from the screen at De L’Orne and also the view back from Black Water gate towards the flooded boardwalk bridge.

When I got home I put the sound recording I’d made of the bunting on to Xeno Canto and soon received a comment that it was too harsh for Snow Bunting, more likely a Lapland Bunting. I canvased the opinion of five other birders and the consensus was Lapland Bunting although it wasn’t unanimous.

I was aware how similar Snow and Lapland Buntings calls are but as there had been a Snow Bunting on the spit and I’d spent many hours looking for it I assumed I’d found it and didn’t properly consider Lapland Bunting. Lesson learned!

With hindsight the trill part of the call sounded dry and not the liquid Serin-like quality of Snow Bunting. Also, in retrospect I didn’t see white wing flashes even when the bunting flew away from me (when it wasn’t backlit in silhouette). Looking at my audio recording the trill part of the call, on the sonogram at around 7 seconds (see below), is fairly high pitched with at least part of it above 5kHz where the Snow Bunting trill is usually below 4kHz. This, in my opinion, is pretty conclusive.

For the last 12 months I’ve been ‘continuous sound recording’ via a sennheiser microphone sticking out of the top of my rucksack. On most occasions I return home with eight hours of recordings which I never listen to but today was an example of when it’s worth it. I’ve included the Lapland Bunting calls here.

If accepted this will be the 4th record for Needs Ore, after two in the 1960s and one in 2012.