Category: June 2021

I relocated last week’s colour-ringed Oystercatcher and was able to get a better view of the ring on the left tarsus. It was definitely a double yellow ring thus confirming this bird as at least 23 years old. Pete Potts ringed it as an adult at Hamble Point on 28th Dec 1999. It winters near Hamble Point which is 9km away and feeds on wet fields near Pete’s bungalow at Chilling. Mine is the first breeding season sighting in all this time.

The Ringed Plover at the Sailing Club was still sitting on four eggs next to the track. Given the perilous location they have been on and off the eggs countless times and so I hope the eggs have not become too chilled despite the adults amazing persistence.

The Sailing Club Oystercatchers were also still sitting on eggs.

Oystercatcher photos by Ian Williamson

Three more Avocet chicks had hatched on Gt Marsh to join the two well developed ones. There were still four on DL’O scrape of which I think one is from the first brood and three smaller birds from the second brood.  

The Reed Warblers which are nesting near the B Water gate had successfully fledged at least three young.

On JV a female Pochard was accompanied by three small ducklings, successful breeding was only confirmed from three sites in Hampshire in 2019.

A Sparrowhawk dashed across W Lane closely followed by a squawking Jay, the first I’ve seen (as opposed to heard) this year. A ‘teenage’ group of nine 1^st summer Mediterranean Gulls dropped onto B Water for an evening freshen up.

On the insect front I recorded Peacock, Small Copper and Green Hairstreak and I noticed in the log book that someone had seen seven Common Blues although I’m not sure where they are on the reserve. They need Bird’s-foot Trefoil as their food plant and this flowers on the Flooded Fields near the boardwalk but there was no sign there.

A Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) is perhaps the commonest bumblebee in the UK but the worker nectaring on Common Vetch was the first I’ve seen at NO. Lots of bumblebee workers were busy on the large carpets of Thrift. The narrow brown band at the base of the white tail and the golden (as opposed to yellow) thorax and abdomen bands suggest that this is a Bombus terrestris worker and not Bombus lucorum. The males, which join the workers later in the month are much easier to separate from each other.

Others flowers included Sea Campion, Common Vetch, Sea Beet, Ragged Robin, Silverweed, Heath Bedstraw and Lesser Stitchwort

On the sea there was a reasonable movement of terns heading west. A single Little Tern, five Common Terns and 10 Sandwich Terns, several of them carrying sand eels back to the 60-pair colony near Keyhaven. There was also a slightly bizarre very thick-billed Sandwich Tern which raised my heart rate for a while.

There were six new Black-headed Gull chicks on Gt Marsh and an unseasonable Black-tailed Godwit was feeding with the Avocets. Unfortunately the Little Ringed Plover chick numbers were down to two.

A Nightjar churred briefly somewhere on Gv Marsh and as darkness fell several Soprano Pipistrelles and Common Pipistrelles accompanied me on the walk back along W Lane.

Later – bad news from Adam’s beach walk the next day, Tuesday 8th. No sign of Peregrine eggs or chicks. Perhaps the 70 mph gales on the 21^st May had taken their toll, Adam said the layout of the nest site and the tide lines had changed since we visited last, very depressing.

As predicted by Adam the Little Ringed Plover chicks had been guided down to Gt Marsh and I found them on the mud on the southern margin. The tiny white chicks were feeding at the water’s edge but would occasionally dash back to Mum when they lost confidence or perhaps when she called them. They would then spend a few minutes sheltering under her.  

The two fairly advanced Avocet chicks on Gt Marsh were still around but no new chicks yet from the other five sitting birds. The four Lapwing chicks were still on Gv Marsh. I was several hundred yards back towards the car when a calling Little Ringed Plover flew overhead. No doubt one of the parent birds returning to help with the chicks on Gt Marsh.

I met up with Dimitri and on the walk back a Whimbrel gave a snatch of song. On DL’O there were 10 Shelduck chicks, the first I’ve seen and also four young Avocet chicks. 18 Great Black-backed Gulls were nearby, way too many for the various chicks to have an easy time. From the screen I counted 18 Black-headed Gull chicks on the rafts, it looks like the Common Terns have had to try elsewhere.

On the other end of B Water, behind JV Island, there was a single Oystercatcher chick and a Cuckoo which had been calling for an hour or more was joined by a second bird and together they flew across the water in front of us. Two tiny new Lapwing chicks were also on Wigeon Fields and another newly hatched chick was on G West.

Perched on a dead tree at the back of B Water a Hobby surveyed G West and Wigeon Fields probably watching for hirundines, dragonflies or damselflies. Hobbies are probably breeding in one of the woodlands on the Estate.

I’d arrived at NO at 3:30pm so that I could finish with an evening visit to P Shore. I ended up spending four hours at P Farm hoping to see or hear Little Owls. As sunset approached I watched a White Wagtail feeding with the cattle and after sunset I began to record whatever bats were flying. There were Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle and Noctules.

Other than a Tawny Owl calling from the woods at just after 10pm it was all quiet on the owl front. At 10:54pm and just as I was thinking about heading home I did hear another owl but it was the screech of a Barn Owl.