Category: October 2021

On Wednesday, while leading a group of birders Graham found a female Scaup on Black Water. Dimitri was nearby and saw it as well. Both Graham and Dimitri messaged me to tell me about the bird.

I was originally planning to visit on Saturday but with the arrival of the Scaup and the fact that the weather wasn’t great on Saturday I decided to head over to Needs Ore early Thursday morning. I met Dimitri at Shore Hide and we headed over to Black Water.

In Black Water hide I quickly picked out the Scaup. Being a night feeder it was asleep for most of the time. Larger than the Wigeon and similar sized to the Shoveler, the broad chest and large rounded head were obvious with no sign of any tuft and an obvious and extensive whitish blaze. I think it is probably a first winter female based on the browner body, reduced black nail on the bill tip and the less extensive white blaze particularly above the bill.

Scaup are some of the most maritime of all the ducks that visit us, the nearest breeding populations are Norway and Iceland. Most of the wintering birds around the UK are coastal but smaller numbers can be found on lakes and reservoirs. Ringing recoveries suggest that most of the UK wintering birds are from Iceland.

In the past we have had one or two Scaup turn up on Blackwater in the autumn and they have stayed around for several weeks or even months. There are usually around 10-20 in Hampshire in a typical winter. Most of the Shoveler on the reserve are concentrated here and so it was worth a quick count, there were at least 52, with 11 Pintail mixed in and a single male Pochard.

Migrant Hawker and Common Darter were around De L’Orne and a Clouded Yellow flitted across in front of De L’Orne hide and settled in the grass.

The 24 Cormorant on Venner Island is my largest site count.

We headed back over Warren Lane to watch the sea at Mary Monts. A confident and bulky Rock Pipit called overhead before landing on the shingle beach. After a close Razorbill on the sea on Saturday I picked out a Guillemot also resting on the sea.

Large groups of Black-headed Gulls were loitering off shore in loose fishing flocks with a handful of Common Gulls and one or two Mediterranean Gulls. Dimitri picked up two White-tailed Eagles over the Isle of Wight and both of them headed over the channel towards us and then headed towards the Black Water area.

On the way back to the car we picked up a Dartford Warbler at the Shore Hide end of the Beach Gorse, calling regularly but it didn’t show in the breezy conditions. At the Sailing Club 13 Little Egret and 14 Cormorant were engaged in a cooperative organised chase up the river edge herding and chasing fish.

The Little Egrets were high stepping along the edge of the river with occasional wing flicks while the Cormorants were swimming low and fast in the water alongside them.

Four Black-tailed Godwit were feeding on the river edge towards De L’Orne and the adult male Pied Wagtail was hanging around the Sailing Club, it’s presumably one of the two adult birds who raised two broods in the eaves here.

Darcia came down to visit the reserve. Living in Wiltshire she doesn’t often see the variety of coastal habitats we have here and she was also keen to see a White-tailed Eagle if possible. 

Before she arrived I walked out to the beach and had five Lesser Redpoll calling overhead and one of the Dartford Warblers showed nicely at the start of the Beach Gorse. 

Darcia arrived at around 8:30am and we headed off to the hides. From the De L’Orne area we enjoyed regular sightings of Marsh Harriers including an adult male, the regular juvenile and at least one female type.

A single Spotted Redshank fed on the islands on the scrape and a single Avocet waded and swam in the deeper water behind. After 90 minutes or so we headed over to Venner and spent another hour or so in Venner Hide. It was quiet here. At around 10:30am Ian who had just arrived with Sarah called to say that an eagle had dropped down on to the saltmarsh on the other side of De L’Orne Scrape.

We headed back to De L’Orne and after 30 minutes or so Darcia picked up the White-tailed Eagle as it came over De L’Orne Scrape being followed by a much smaller Grey Heron. It flew over Three Fields North and then towards Venner.

I called Ian who was in Venner hide and he tracked it across to Gins West where they watched it land in a tree. We headed back to Venner Hide and enjoyed scope views of the eagle in the tree top.

On the insect front a late Common Darter dashed past in the strong wind near Shore Hide, a Migrant Hawker was patrolling in front of De L’Orne Hide and the micro moth Tachystola acroxantha was resting on the inside of Venner Hide.

After a walk to the beach front we had enough time to drive down Park Lane to see if the Cattle Egrets were still near Park Farm. We did see one and the White-tailed Eagle made another appearance drifting towards us over Stagg’s Wood before losing height and disappearing out of sight.   

Around three hundred corvids lifted up from the Venner area as I was driving past the Reedy Ditch.

I decided to head down to the beach first thing to listen for finch passage. The bubbling calls of Curlew and the mournful calls of Grey Plover greeted me as I reached the water. I met up with Ian at the sea watching area, we had independently recorded three Dartford Warblers on our walk down. I saw my first Dartford Warbler in the same week last year, up to six wintered but they moved away to breed.   

The sea watching highlight was undoubtedly a Razorbill on a flat calm sea. Too far for decent photos but great to see. We also saw two red-head Red-breasted Mergansers heading east, two Avocet flying high and a female Common Scoter resting on the sea. A single Lesser Redpoll flying over calling was new for the year.

On De L’Orne Scrape there were good numbers of waders waiting for the tide to drop. Three Spotted Redshank, six Greenshank, four Grey Plover, 152 Dunlin, 102 Ringed Plover, 214 Lapwing and three Redshank which included a colour-ringed bird (left leg – blue over yellow, right leg – black flag over green). Lizzie confirmed that this is a chick ringed in the Avon Valley this year and that it hadn’t been re-sighted until now.

Highlight of the day was watching the two White-tailed Eagles on Venner being joined by a third bird. Steve Egerton-Read at the Roy Dennis Foundation confirmed that our resident male G393, released in 2019 has been back and forth between Needs Ore and the Isle of Wight over much of October. Today he was joined by two birds released earlier this year – G547 (a pretty big female and G815 (a smallish male, but by no means the smallest). All three have been on and off the reserve, the two younger birds likely still returning to the island to feed. He said he was disappointed not to have seen all three of them in the same field like we did.

As I headed back to the car 12 Barnacle Geese flew over Three Fields North, I later noticed on Going Birding that they had spent the day on Normandy Marsh.

After lunch I headed over to Park Shore to look for the reported five Cattle Egrets. I found them fairly quickly just north of Park Farm although their numbers had swelled to seven, my highest ever count of this species.

While setting up the Moth Trap at 4:30pm the male White-tailed Eagle flew over Mary Monts and headed out towards the Isle of Wight. Returning the next morning there were 13 individuals of 6 species in the trap although the temperature did feel lower than forecast and the wind probably deterred too many moths from flying. Highlights were two Flounced Chestnuts, the first recorded on the reserve for more than 30 years.