I’m taking over a new WeBS sector (for more info on WeBS read here). My first count date is Sunday 25^th July and so I decided to try a dummy run today timing it for similar tides to Sunday.

My sector will be number 6 which is the Beaulieu River. Ian is taking over sector 4. Rather than count sector 6 from the Sailing Club on the Needs Ore side this sector has always been counted from the other side, at Inchmery, as the high tide roost is nearer to the northern shoreline.

The previous WeBS counter had been doing this sector for 20 years and had built up a rapport with the local landowner, this had led to private access to the small boatyard at Inchmery Quay which provided a much better viewpoint over the Beaulieu River.

As we had no hand over and no knowledge of who the land owner was I expecting to have to find a different viewpoint and looking at maps there didn’t seem to be an obvious choice. As luck would have it, Dimitri’s Dad knew the land owner and so we were able to get the same permission including a place to park and the code for the padlocked gate. I met Dimitri on site and for the 90 minutes leading up to high tide we watched how the birds use the creeks and grassy islands as the water rises.

Highlights included 52 Curlew, 81 Oystercatcher and 95 Mediterranean Gulls. The gull roost included four juvenile Mediterranean Gulls, my first of the year. There were also three returning adult Common Gulls and one of the Peregrines sat menacingly out on the marsh.

Near the boatyard entrance gate I saw my first patch Ringlet and there were several Meadow Grasshoppers chirping in the long grass. After high tide we headed over to Needs Ore and to the hides.

Along the hedge to the hides we found a Ruddy Darter perched up and looking directly at us providing a great opportunity to see the black lines which run down each side of the frons, an identification separator from Common Darter. Ruddy Darter certainly seemed to be outnumbering Common Darter today.

male Ruddy Darter

It was nice to see a second, different juvenile Little Grebe on Black Water, slightly closer this time. This one looking much more like a winter adult. At Venner a Green Sandpiper was bobbing on the edge of the island but the next time we looked it had left, silently.

Green Sandpiper and juvenile Little Grebe

From the De L’Orne screen I could see 11 distant Greenshank in the direction of the Sluice Gate although at a distance of 350m the heat haze made the views pretty awful.

We headed back to the car for lunch where I noticed a Field Grasshopper near Shore Hide, you can clearly see the densely hairy underside. It also looks like the toilet will be out of action for a while longer as I found a second brood of 6 Swallow eggs in the roof of the cubicle!

We then headed towards Mary Monts. There were lots of Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers near the Pullen kissing gate and a Meadow Grasshopper on a piece of wood showing the female’s very short wings.

It was also nice to get a slightly unusual angle on a Peacock.

A Bombus terrestris was busy on a thistle getting covered in pollen. The long lens does a nice job of blurring the background. Another splash of purple was provided by the newly flowering Purple Loosestrife on the wet area near the kissing gate.

Bombus terrestris (Buff-tailed Bumblebee) and Purple Loosestrife

I then headed off to the private areas around Gravelly Marsh. After the recent very hot weather the water levels were low on Great Marsh and there were few birds around. Adam is juggling water levels, now that birds have largely finished breeding, to ensure that contractors can get their machinery onto Black Water next month to create a scrape.

A bit of colour was provided by a bright and freshly emerged male Common Blue.

Most hoverflies only have a scientific name but this one, Helophilus pendulus, is also called The Footballer due to its stripy thorax.

One of the highlights of the day was approaching the Sluice Gate to hear a fleeing Common Sandpiper and then to have close views of the 11 Greenshank I had seen previously from the De L’Orne screen. They all appeared to be adults with ten in breeding plumage and one already in winter plumage.

There were also six Little Egrets fishing right under the Sluice Gate. The Common Sandpiper was joined by a second bird and they both called in alarm and flew away on characteristic stiff wing beats.  

Common Sandpiper and Little Egret

The bare ground around the Sluice Gate was home to good numbers of jumping Mottled Grasshoppers, one of the smallest and most variable of our grasshoppers. They show deeply indented pronotum markings, out-turned and clubbed antennae and a colourful mottled appearance.

Also nearby was a pink form of Meadow Grasshopper which was a bit easier to see in the grass.

The Ringed Plover at the Sailing Club were flying around calling and chasing each other. Surely too late for another brood?

The five young Swallows have fledged from their salubrious nest site in the roof of the toilet and they were hawking around Shore Hide first thing, you can see the short tail streamers at this age.

juvenile Swallow

On De L’Orne flood at least seven young Shelduck chicks remained and as soon as the family group saw me the adults took off and for the next 25 minutes they flew around in such huge circles that it initially seemed like they had abandoned.  

I haven’t seen any Avocets for a week but today there was a family group of 2 adults and 3 fully grown juveniles on De L’Orne scrape. As I hadn’t seen these juvenile birds before I’m sure they were raised elsewhere. I then noticed that one of the adult birds was colour ringed – Green/Blue-Blue/Yellow. Graham confirmed that this Avocet was ringed at Needs Ore in 2014 and successfully nested at Normandy Marsh this summer. It appears that, just like the Needs Ore birds, this family group vacated their breeding site in mid-July.   

Graham later told me that this family group was seen at Titchfield Haven a week later. Graham commented that Titchfield is a site where lots of Hampshire Avocets go to complete their annual moult, prior to the adults heading to favored wintering sites and the juveniles wandering further afield.

I haven’t noticed any Peregrines since their nest was washed out but there was one today charging up the Beaulieu River. More post breeding gatherings with 20 Lapwing dropping down on to the Gins. Dimitri noticed a Broad-bodied Chaser land in an oak tree at just above head height.

Above and behind the chaser and just below the tree top there were at least three Purple Hairstreaks and one of them descended slightly lower for a better photo, albeit still distant. Purple Hairstreaks spend most of their time in the tree tops sipping honeydew, a sugary sticky liquid secreted by aphids. They can be overlooked because of this habit but if you spend a while below an oak tree on a warm calm day in July you may well see occasional dark grey butterflies flitting around and spiralling together but rarely descending very far.

Half way along the hedge to the hides a female Common Darter landed right in front of us.

I use a 600mm lens (or 840mm with a converter) for all my wildlife photography including insects. There are several benefits, firstly you have a really good working distance and so can get good size images standing a long way back from the insect, this can be handy on hot days when insects are difficult to approach. Secondly the long focal length acts to blur the background nicely and thirdly the much narrower field of field means that you can easily change your angle slightly to removing distracting elements from the background.

I noticed Stonechat juveniles at both the sluice gate and at the flight pond. Over the summer I’ve seen fledgling juvenile Stonechats from five different nests. I also counted my largest gathering of Linnets this year with 50 around the ringing area on Gravelly. Graham later ringed 14 juvenile Linnets in one session at the end of July confirming they’ve had a good year. Post breeding numbers build up to a peak in the autumn, I counted 100 near the point last September.

There were lots of dragonflies on the wing in very sunny conditions. Just where the track near Mary Monts house splits off to the private Gravelly Marsh areas I flushed a male Ruddy Darter but characteristically it returned to the same perch.

Not far from the Ruddy Darter I came across a pale brown adult grasshopper. The almost parallel pronotum, the pale colouration and the characteristic white line along the wing all indicated Lesser Marsh Grasshopper. One of our rarer grasshoppers this is amongst the best locations in the region for this species. I saw what I thought was an early instar a few days ago and so it was good to find a full adult resting nicely on an exposed leaf.

In one of the bays around the edge of Great Marsh there were very good numbers of Black-tailed Skimmers, at least 30 and a much larger male Emperor was investigating them before landing briefly. The lack of spots on the abdomen and a black line running down the abdomen are features only shown by Emperors in the UK.

male Emperor

Although not so obvious as the male Black-tailed Skimmers I saw my first female Black-tailed Skimmer of the year along the bushes adjoining the flight pond.

Perhaps the most vocal of the waders on Great Marsh were the three adult Greenshank who dashed about calling frequently. There have been 1 or 2 wintering Greenshank at Needs Ore but these three are probably all migrants. As I walked across the causeway at the eastern end of the flight pool I flushed two Green Sandpipers. They were silent but appeared to land 100 yards back along the splash. I doubled back but unfortunately couldn’t relocate them.

A newly arrived returning migrant bobbed excitedly on the far end of the scrape. Only my third Common Sandpiper at Needs Ore. This bird may be returning from Scotland, Wales or the north of England and it may winter along the south coast although most do head back to Africa.

One of the two juvenile Little Ringed Plover was associating with an adult Ringed Plover but I didn’t see the other juvenile or either of the adult birds. I counted four juvenile Redshanks. Compared to the adult birds their legs were yellower and the mantle and scapular feathers were neater and more uniform. I’ve spent months trying to find young redshank chicks with limited success and here were four fully grown individuals all together.

Particularly noticeable today were the large flocks of Starlings mainly juveniles which had gathered together and were charging around the reserve.

It was great to be buzzed by one of the UK’s largest insects, the Golden-ringed Dragonfly. They look surprisingly dark in flight although the yellow rings are just about visible as it dashes past. The female’s long ovipositor maker her the longest dragonfly in the UK.

Female Common Blue butterflies are usually brown with orange spots but they are variable and occasionally some individuals, like this one near the Pullen Hide, are much bluer.

Other butterflies today included a Painted Lady, Small Copper, Peacock, several Marbled Whites and lots of Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns. A very brief view of a small blue butterfly may well have been a Brown Argus but it disappeared before I could check it properly.

It’s been a good year on Venner for ducks some of whom are not common breeders in Hampshire. A second Pochard pair have at least 2 small chicks and the original female now has five almost fully grown ducklings. The lovely blackish Tufted Duck ducklings, seven of them, were following the female everywhere. There were 39 Gadwall resting on Venner with at least 17 off spring ranging from small chicks to almost fully grown ducklings. There were 60 and 44 broods of Tufted Duck and Gadwall reported across the whole of Hampshire in 2019, around 20 broods of Shelduck and Pochard was only confirmed as having bred at three sites.

There has been an influx of Teal since Sunday with seven on Venner and 16 on Black Water. 13 Curlew and nine Black-tailed Godwit, previously out of view, flew up from behind the island and over my head towards Black Water. The Egyptian Geese were walking their eight youngsters to the water’s edge from Wigeon Fields and the eight Shelduck chicks were still on De L’Orne flood.  

Little Grebe haven’t bred at Needs Ore for a few years and so I was glad to see a juvenile on Black Water, he showed remnants of some head stripes and a reddish patch. I was at the De L’Orne screen and very distant, hence the poor quality record shot. An adult was also on Black Water but keeping an eye out from a distance.

A juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over Venner Island as I was leaving.

On my way back from the hides I reached the boardwalk and checked an egret which was in the trees on Venner. I’ve done this hundreds of times before but this time it was a stunning breeding plumage Cattle Egret with an orange bill and orange patches on the head and chest. I headed back to the screen at Venner and enjoyed some closer views. A patch tick. Soon afterwards the equally stunning summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe appeared from behind the Island.

The gorse was popping in the heat and there were plenty of butterflies on the wing with lots of Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, Small and Large Whites, a handful of Marbled Whites and several Small Heaths. There were three or four Purple Hairstreaks drifting across Warren Lane as I had a drink back at the car. A Comma pausing on brambles near the Pullen Hide was new for the patch. 

Dragonflies were also evident with plenty of Common Darters and Black-tailed Skimmers, a lovely male Ruddy Darter near Pullen Hide and a female Migrant Hawker alongside the flight pond at Great Marsh.

I headed on to Gravelly Marsh and it was obvious that the Black-headed Gulls, who had left the rafts at De L’Orne, had now relocated to Great Marsh, the noise levels had certainly gone up a few notches.

New migrant waders included an adult Dunlin and two adult Greenshank. The juvenile Redshank had been walked over from Gravelly Marsh and so too had a young Lapwing. I flushed a wader from the short causeway at the eastern end of the flight pond. It looked like a ringed plover species and the ‘teeuu’ call and lack of wing bar confirmed it as Little Ringed Plover. A little later I found one of the two juvenile birds on the same island as the Dunlin. The juvenile birds are pretty independent now and I couldn’t find the second bird.

The first returning Turnstones, seven of them, rested below the new groynes at Park Shore.

As I walked back from Great Marsh nine Swallows flew overhead and they included seven juvenile birds with their shorter tail streamers.

A Field Grasshopper showed nicely near the Pullen Hide. Not an adult yet as you can see from the very short wing buds but the markedly indented pronotum and hairy underside are diagnostic.

A lovely juvenile Stonechat flicked up to the top of a gorse bush in front of me in the beach scrub south of Pullen Hide, a Hobby dashed over the cottage pines and a female type Marsh Harrier drifted towards me from Black Water.

It was approaching high tide and the Oystercatchers were gathering together on Inchmery, there were at least 75 in view from where I sat at the Warden’s Hut. At least one of the juveniles was still present in amongst Sea Lavender near the sluice gate.

Flowers I’d noticed for the first time included the frothy vanilla flowers of Meadowsweet mainly along the track just after the entrance gate and the strangely named Sneezewort over on Great Marsh.

During the afternoon I saw the Cattle Egret in flight three more times, once heading west over Great Marsh, then over Pullen Hide and finally returning back towards and then landing in the trees on Venner, back where it started.

One of the first birds of the day was a distant Hobby perched on the beach fence line near Wheatear Corner. I had been walking down Warren Lane and so doubled back to walk the path along the fence for a closer view. Unfortunately the Hobby had flown before I could get any closer.

Having walked to the beach it was good to watch a Brown Hare dashing along the shingle.

On Gravelly Marsh there were two Lapwing chicks, an intermediate sized one and an almost fully grown one. A large flock of 36 Gadwall took off from Great Marsh as I approached. I could only find one of the juvenile Little Ringed Plover today although Adam later saw them both. A summer plumaged Greenshank at the back of the scrape was probably a returning migrant.

Halfway along the path to the hides a newly emerged Gatekeeper was new for the patch. Other butterflies today were a couple of Marbled Whites near the Weather Station, several Meadow Browns and a single Small Heath.

Soon after watching the Gatekeeper two waders flew over Three Fields East, they were silent but I could see they were my first Green Sandpipers of the year and a sign that autumn is on the way. On the flooded fields the single fully grown juvenile Avocet remained although now on its own. All of the 24 adult Avocets appear to have left the reserve and there was no sign of the three other chicks I saw with them last Sunday. It looks like just one juvenile was raised from the 12 or so pairs.

Avocets are relatively long-lived and they can afford to have poor breeding seasons. Bad years can be caused by predation from gulls, crows, herons and foxes but also from cold and wet weather at the wrong time, when the adults are on eggs or the chicks are very young. Disturbance also contributes as the adults constantly leave the eggs and they can cool.

I arrived at the viewing screen on Venner and raised my binoculars for a presumed Little Grebe which was drifting this side of the island, I was delighted to see that it was in fact a stunning summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe! The first I’ve seen in the summer anywhere in the UK. A lovely matt black head and neck, yellow ear covert whiskers and an incredible red eye.

I spoke to Keith Betton and he commented that “Black-necked Grebes are rarely seen in summer in Hampshire but have bred twice – in 1987 at Winchester Sewage Farm and in 2004 in the Avon Valley. Odd birds do occur in some summers and are presumably failed breeders from elsewhere – perhaps France. Gatherings of up to 30 are seen around the Somme Estuary in the summer – 220km from Needs Ore. The most recent mid-summer sightings have been of singles at Blashford Lakes in June/July 2017, and prior to that another on the coast between Hill Head and Hook-with-Warsash in June 2015”.

Black-necked Grebe

One of the Green Sandpipers had landed on Venner and showed distantly resting in the north-west corner. There have been eight or more Tufted Ducks on Venner all summer but until now no evidence of breeding, it was therefore great to see a female with seven dark brown chicks following.

Seven Shelduck chicks had followed their parents over from De L’Orne scrape along the flood, past the boardwalk bridge and onto Venner. There were still at least eight almost fully grown Gadwall ducklings. House Martins, Sand Martins, Swallows and Swift were all feeding over Venner and the Ravens which favour this area put in an appearance again.

At the sailing club a Whimbrel called and then landed on the edge of the now flooded creeks. There was a juvenile Oystercatcher near the sluice gate and another directly out from the sailing club.

The water’s edge and the islands created by the rising tide were covered in carpets of Sea Lavender, attracting bumblebees, this worker is probably Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris).

At the Point Bushes I flushed a passerine which flashed a red tail at me. Thankfully it perched up nicely and then showed really well on the log in front of the Warden’s Hut. Redstart is a patch tick and this bird was actually a young juvenile with the gape line still showing. Given the early date this will be one of the first dispersing birds in the county, they breed in the New Forest.

juvenile Redstart

A Hobby dashed over Warren Lane as I was heading home.