A Cuckoo was calling as I walked over to MMs. It was the 7^th time I’ve heard one since 18^th April which makes me wonder if it may be one or two individuals on territory. I later saw it flying over Gv Marsh with its flickering wings never going above the horizontal.

I checked MMs and could only find one Lapwing chick. From there I walked to the beach house to see if the Little Ringed Plovers were ok, which they were. The female was on the nest and the male was nearby.

The water levels at Gt Marsh looked a little high and some of the Avocet nests looked perilously close to the water. It started to rain and in the strong breeze I decided I needed shelter which I found in the lee of the hut. From there I noticed a wheeling melee of feeding gulls just off shore. The gulls at the front kept peeling off and circulating to the back of the line like time trialers do in a bicycle race. It was difficult to watch any particular gull for long, there were Sandwich Terns, Black-headed Gulls, Common Terns, Herring Gulls and a single Mediterranean Gull. I was hoping for a Little Gull and I was delighted to find a first summer bird loitering at the back of the group although it soon disappeared.

Towards the Isle of Wight a couple of Gannets headed west and a flock of seven Sanderling headed east, a mix of summer and winter plumaged birds.

The Garden Warbler was still singing in the beach house scrub as I headed back to Gt Marsh where I found another 1st summer Little Gull resting and preening on one of the tiny islands. I was much closer here and got a few better shots. The amount of black in the head suggests that this bird and the off shore bird were different individuals.

On nearby Gv Marsh I was pleased to see all four of the Lapwing chicks and a pair of brown hares resting in the warm sun.

After a coffee in the car I headed to the hides. An adult Spoonbill on DL’O flood was the first I’ve seen for more than five weeks. A mixed group of four Black-tailed Godwit and three Bar-tailed Godwit were feeding on DL’O scrape and a Whimbrel was in the grass alongside them. From the new viewing screen I was pleased to find a smart Hobby, probably newly arrived sat on the fence line which separates Three Fields East and Centre Field.

When it’s cold and windy you don’t see Butterflies and Dragonflies but the hardworking bumblebee is out in all weathers. My first Early Bumblebee of the year was collecting pollen from Sea Campion out on the point gorse bushes. Given the weather I thought another hour or so sea-watching might be worth it and so I headed back to MMs. On the way I found a Ringed Plover nest with two very young chicks, perhaps a day old. The second chick is underneath the breast feathers of the adult.

The gull and tern flock had disbanded but there was still a small passage of Sandwich Terns and Common Terns all heading east.

With my Peregrine monitoring at 11am I decided to have a good look around Gt Marsh and Gv Marsh first. At MMs I saw that at least two of the Lapwing chicks were still around.  I also saw one of the Little Ringed Plover adults again but I headed off to Gt Marsh without being able to find the 2nd bird.

There were 19 Avocet with 5 sitting but no sign of chicks yet, they have started hatching at Lymington. A colour-ringed bird proved to be a seven year old ringed at NO (at DL’O) as a chick in July 2014. It was seen at Cliffe Pools in Kent in September 2014 and it was then recorded in Suffolk in three consecutive summers (2018-2020) where it was thought to have bred.  

Nearby I heard a singing warbler which I initially assumed to be a Blackcap but soon realised it wasn’t. The familiar Blackcap tends to end up with what I find a slightly disappointing and thinner fluty crescendo whereas this bird was more consistent, richer and fuller. I managed a couple of brief views and captured some audio. Garden Warbler is a patch tick for me. Lesser Whitethroats were also singing with at least five around the reserve.

I headed over to Gv Marsh to count the Lapwing chicks, there were three (four last time) although it wouldn’t surprise me if another one or two were hidden. Finding Redshank chicks is even harder, they rarely emerge from the rushes.

I then decided to spend a bit more time trying to find the second Little Ringed Plover and possibly the nest site as the habitat looked good and I’ve seen them five times since the 3^rd April. Eventually the single adult was joined by the second bird which quickly returned to an area which I subsequently realised was the nest site. She sat down and over the next 30 minutes she didn’t move other than to stand up occasionally, look between her legs and adjust the presumed eggs beneath her. I contacted Adam and he jumped in the car.

Little Ringed Plover pair, female on nest, male and the four eggs

When Adam arrived we re-checked the nest position and walked towards her, she walked away as we approached. We put up nine iron posts and strung the rope around the nest site. It took us around three minutes. I grabbed a quick photo of the four eggs and soon after we had retreated we were pleased to see the female return to the nest and settle. This is the first Little Ringed Plover nest to be found at NO.

On my way to the sailing club to monitor the Peregrine nest I checked DL’O scrape from Two Bridges gate. There were two Curlew, perhaps the two I’d seen the previous Saturday. A handful spend the summer here out of the 100 or so that winter. There were also eight Avocet with three sitting and 10 summer plumaged Dunlin scurrying around, they’re on route from West Africa to their breeding grounds in Greenland. At the sailing club a pair of Pied Wagtails were feeding young in the eaves and a Grey Seal was busy eating what looked like a Cuttlefish and a couple of Gannets headed west off shore.

Just over 30 minutes into my Peregrine monitoring, at 11.36am, Alan found a Long-tailed Skua heading east over the spit at Hurst. He put the news out on the county rarity WhatsApp group. It was heading inland of the Isle of Wight and was likely heading my way! I was at the Wardens Hut and 20 minutes later it came past me, a superb adult bird with a dark cap, no white in the primaries and amazing long tail streamers. It wasn’t seen at various other places to the east where people were ready and looking and so may have taken a shortcut and headed up over the Isle of Wight, it was fairly high already. What an amazing few minutes!

Sandwich Tern and Long-tailed Skua (honest)

After the Peregrine monitoring I headed over to the hides to see if the Common Terns were still on the raft. Unfortunately the raft was unoccupied and there were no Common Terns in the vicinity. I checked the fields – either side of the walking trail, the flooded fields, Venner, Wigeon Fields and the Gins – and I saw only one Lapwing chick. Several birds were sitting, presumably incubating and so there may be more chicks soon but it was still a disappointing return.

The young White-tailed Eagle took off over the Gins giving me my closest views so far and there were 2 Black-tailed Godwit on DL’O scrape. Two Painted Lady butterflies were a patch tick newly arrived after the long run of northerlies had thankfully ended.

Ian and I were meeting Adam to do the May shoreline survey, this is primarily to check for the number of nesting Ringed Plover, Oystercatchers and also to, hopefully, find the Peregrine nest. A second shoreline survey is carried out in mid-June to look for chicks in the areas where we see evidence of territories and nests on the walk today. This whole beach is closed off from 1st March and so it’s a privilege to be invited out on this walk.

We’ve recently had some high spring tides in conjunction with storms and there was a very real risk that many nests including the Peregrine’s may have been washed out.

Before we all met up I checked Gt Marsh and counted 18 Avocet with four of them sitting. No sign of the Little Ringed Plover pair. There were two juvenile Stonechats around Gv Mire and two Common Terns appeared to be prospecting over Gt Marsh. A Cuckoo was calling regularly before I saw it briefly flying over Pullen. On nearby Gv Marsh there were two Lapwing pairs each with two chicks.

Stonechats adult and juvenile

I headed back towards the meeting point and was delighted to find the pair of Little Ringed Plover on the grassy shingle between the beach house and the hut. This may well be the nest site with both birds sparring with a pair of Ringed Plover who also appear to be nesting here. If successful this will be the first breeding record for NO.

A Lesser Whitethroat was singing in P scrub and two Sedge Warblers were also singing from here and from the P Reeds. Pairs of both Pochard and Tufted Duck appear to be breeding on NP.

On the shoreline walk out we counted 16 Ringed Plover pairs with a similar number again behaving as though they had no nest site to defend often flying long distances along the water line, these quick to flush shoreline individuals are likely to have been washed out. Overall the numbers were better than we’d hoped. We also found a nest with two eggs.

As we got past the level of the Warden’s Hut I noticed the female Peregrine taking off several hundred yards further down the spit, I tried to get a fix on the precise location although it was difficult given how long and undulating the spit is. We continued onwards but, unfortunately, we were unable to find the nest. Lots of the usually dry shingle and sand areas appeared to be damp and the tidelines on either side of the spit were higher than usual. We also didn’t see any Peregrine kill larder sites. We got to the very end of G Island, braving a crazy attacking Oystercatcher, and we were beginning to think that the Peregrines had been washed out.

On the walk back both Peregrines appeared again circling and looking agitated, perhaps we were close to the nest and at roughly at the point where I guessed the female had left earlier I found the Peregrine nest with three eggs. The eggs were still warm, we left quickly so that the female could return. Back towards the start of the spit we noticed evidence of a kill larder with feathers, bones and an Oystercatcher’s head.

Peregrine and Ringed Plover nests

The next really high tide is in just under three weeks on the 26^th May. If the weather is calm we should be OK as it’s low pressure and high winds that create higher than forecast tides and huge waves crashing over onto normally dry sections.

A wander around the rest of the reserve produced the Barnacle Goose again near JV feeding with Canada Geese on V South. On DL’O there were eight Avocets with four of them sitting. That’s the same number of apparent nests as on Gt Marsh although the Avocets on DL’O are much more prone to Great Black-backed Gull predation, we had found a Great Black-backed Gull nest on G Island. 

Egyptian Geese and chicks, Barnacle Goose and Greylag Goose

There were four Common Terns calling and flying over the lagoon and I was pleased to see two of them land on the vacant left hand raft, one of the terns moved up to the top of the posts and began calling, appearing to stake a claim to the raft. Fingers crossed that they can fend off the Black-headed Gulls.

A distant Red Kite gradually circled gradually moving closer to me on the Gins and a spring Whinchat was an exciting find on the fence line on the edge of Gins West, viewable from JV.

Common Terns including a pair on the raft and Whinchat

I saw three Wheatears today, one at the start of the shoreline walk, one on the Wigeon Fields and another at the sailing club. On the drive back home I pulled over to photograph the Green-winged Orchids in Spring Meadow, Miranda had mentioned them to Ian earlier.   

Ian organised a Bird Race for 1st May to attempt 100 species in the day, all at NO. We met at St L’s Barn at 4am. Our initial targets were Tawny Owl and Barn Owl and Woodcock with the thermal camera. We had no luck with any of these and we headed to S’s Wood for 5am. The highlights here were Tawny Owl, Cuckoo, Jay and Snipe all calling. We also saw Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch and an unexpected Firecrest. The main things we missed which we might subsequently struggle with were Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goshawk, Marsh Tit and Coal Tit.

Next stop was Reedy Ditch where an immature Lesser Black-backed Gull went over.

A brief stop at MMs and a sea-watch produced several Common Terns going east, a Grey Plover on the beach and a Wheatear at W Corner. In the week I had seen Little Ringed Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit and Black-tailed Godwit all on Gt Marsh but unfortunately there was no sign of any of these birds today. We therefore headed to the hides at around 11am more than a few species behind where we needed to be to hit 100.

In the hides area we picked up an unexpected Common Sandpiper and Raven and a hoped for but not guaranteed Sedge Warbler. We were slightly disappointed not to get Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Black-tailed Godwit which I had seen here in the week.

Sand Martin and Common Sandpiper

We needed to continue catching up and another sea-watch produced a flurry of unexpected highlights – Common Scoter, Little Tern and Sanderling with a newly arrived Lesser Whitethroat. This brought us to 95 before our 3 three hour Peregrine Monitoring started at 2pm.

The Peregrines took us to 96 before we picked out a pair of Red-legged Partridges near the sluice gate, we thought we were going to miss them. Then a group of distant Bar-tailed Godwits towards Lepe and two Curlew on Inchmery. The Curlew took a bit of finding given the good numbers of Whimbrel on the reserve. For the next 2 hours we were stranded on 99 before a Great Spotted Woodpecker drummed at the Reedy Ditch to bring up the 100.

A brilliant and tiring day. We had missed Magpie, Willow Warbler, Eider, Coal Tit, Green Woodpecker, Marsh Tit, Black-tailed Godwit and Sparrowhawk. 105 ought to be possible, maybe next year…