On Thursday at dusk while at the Reedy Ditch I’d seen, distantly to the west, a very large flock of Brent Geese in front of RP Farm. This morning I decided to try and get closer to them and had in mind that looking north from P Shore would achieve this. I drove past the normal turn into W Lane and then left down P Lane. After a hundred yards or so a panoramic view opens up to the east and I quickly noticed a large flock of Brents in the nearest field.

I pulled over set up the scope and amazingly the first goose I got in the scope was an adult Russian White-fronted Goose! It was with three others, two more adults with their black belly barring and white frontal blazes and also a single juvenile/1st winter bird. The goose flock comprised 950 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 88 Greylags, 45 Canada Geese and the four Russian vagrants. Greenland White-fronts are larger, darker and with a more orange bill (as opposed to pink). I looked for Pale-bellied Brents but couldn’t find any.

They were too distant for decent photos but close enough for acceptable record shots.

While watching the geese flock I heard and then saw a Raven, Lesser Redpoll and Marsh Tit. There have been a handful of Russian White fronts in Hampshire and so I was delighted to find my own.

Ian saw them again the next morning when the Brents had disappeared but the White-fronts and the Greylags had moved closer.

Russian White fronted Geese, right hand photo by Ian Williamson

I then headed over to NO as I was taking part in a synchronised wintering Sandwich Tern count. There were two Golden Plover, six Spoonbill and three Avocet on DL’O. On B Water I saw Mute Swan N7L. She is a 12-year old female ringed as a first year at Christchurch in 2009. She bred successfully on Hythe Marshes with male J5A from 2010 annually through to 2019 and was often seen with cygnets on the eastern shore of Southampton Water. She has now been sighted at NO with a new mate who has lost his plastic ring (K6V) but is an adult ringed in 2014 at Keyhaven. Her old mate may have died in the last year or so.

From the sailing club I noticed the Slavonian Grebe on the sea, it was now further east and level with the wardens hut. A pair of female Eider drifted up the river in front of the sailing club. 20 Skylark fed in the short coastal grasses and 40 Black-tailed Godwit flew in to land in the field below Exbury. Unfortunately there were no Sandwich Terns on show today.

Redwing were calling overhead as I paused at the Reedy Ditch and from DL’O I watched as 14 Spoonbill came into roost landing next to 14 already roosting Avocets. The Avocets move away at the end of the summer. Most head to Titchfield Haven to moult and then disperse to wintering grounds such as Poole Harbour. In mid-winter a few begin to filter back and a count of 14 is typical for this time of year. We then see a big increase in March, as the breeding birds return, along with some on passage.

Back at the car I switched to wellies and headed over to the beach and the wet margins around NP. A large female Sparrowhawk stood on the high tide ridge above the beach. A strong supercilium had me wondering although her proportions and slender legs weren’t right for Goshawk. She powered off in my direction but was quickly lost to sight behind the trees.

I’ve checked the sea off MM’s house every time I visit hoping for Slavonian Grebes and today for the first time I was successful. A lovely dapper Slav showed distantly to the east associating with a couple of Great Crested Grebes. Just behind them a couple of big bruiser Great Northern Divers drifted west against the rising tide. Later I returned to find the Slavonian Grebe closer, just about close enough for some record shots. A patch tick for me. In the last five years Slavonian Grebes have arrived a month earlier than in 2020 – 18th November, 15th November, 25th November, 19th November and 18th November.

Slavonian Grebe

During my visit I counted 19 Linnets at both ends of the reserve and so perhaps it’s one winter flock and they spend their days commuting between MM’s house and the Sailing Club. They showed very nicely and so I checked them all for Twite, just in case…

Ian had seen a Jack Snipe on Tuesday and armed with directions I tried the same wet ditch, unfortunately no luck today. I then did a loop I’ve done many times over the last six weeks and just as I was finishing I flushed a silent and starling sized snipe, he waited until I was six foot away before flying and would have given me amazing views if I’d been checking carefully ahead of me. The Jack Snipe flew back in the direction of the first ditch I’d tried and so it may well have been Ian’s bird. Another patch tick for me.

While walking back to the car I bumped into one of the Dartford Warblers and ended up having great views. This bird was one of the two birds who have rings on their right legs.  As I got back to the car for lunch a mobile tit flock included a sneezing Marsh Tit.

Dartford Warbler

I joined Brian and Val at the Sailing Club and Brian mentioned seeing what he thought might be Golden Plover on the scrape from the sluice gate, he’d only had his binoculars at the time. I headed off and sure enough there were five in amongst the Lapwings, my third patch tick of the day. I got back to the Sailing Club and then picked out another 60 Golden Plover in the fields below Exbury House and in amongst them were 52 Black-tailed Godwits, my largest count to date.  

A brief stop at the Reedy Ditch produced 171 Starlings on the wires and a huge flock of bickering Brents in a grassy field near the farm buildings on P Shore.

On the drive down W Lane a noisy Greenshank called and flew up from the Reedy Ditch. There were more than 20 winter thrushes in the area of the hides with at least 15 Fieldfare and 5 Redwing. From the beach a drake Eider headed west half way out and a single Great Crested Grebe dived close in shore.

I met Dad at the Sailing Club. The nine Spoonbill were roosting on Inchmery and the 11 Avocet were again on the scrape opposite DL’O. Later the Spoonbill flew further east before landing near the mouth of the river where they began to feed. The wheeling flocks of Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Grey Plover contained a smaller number of Knot, at this distance they were little more than smaller ‘Grey Plover’ without black armpits. Later I managed to pick out around 15 Knot from the long line of waders feeding along the shoreline. A distant female Red-breasted Merganser dived in the mouth of the river. It may be the same female I have now seen on three occasions in this exact spot.

Curlew and Peregrine photos by Ian Williamson

A walk around the gorse bushes produced my first Dartford Warbler for a fortnight. Soon afterwards I heard a second bird calling and checking photos later it was evident that one bird had a ring on the right leg and the other on the left leg (left handed ringer). There is also at least one other non-ringed bird. I spoke to Graham Giddens and he confirmed that he ringed 2 Dartford Warblers on November 26^th, the first birds he had seen or ringed since the Beast from the East. Both birds were first winters and although young birds can be difficult to sex in their first autumns, from the wing lengths it seems likely they were male and female.

This suggests that there are at least five Dartford Warblers in this small area. Graham’s two birds with rings on their right legs, a bird which had a ring on its right leg before Graham ringed his, the bird with a ring on its left leg and a non-ringed bird which was seen after Graham ringed his birds. Hopefully if we don’t get some adverse weather we may have breeding Dartford Warblers again in 2021.

Dartford Warbler and Linnets

It also occurred to me that I haven’t seen or heard a Spotted Redshank for a month and a Merlin for six weeks, perhaps they’ve moved elsewhere to winter.

On the walk over to the hides there were two vocal Fieldfares, a Mistle Thrush and plenty of zitting Song Thrushes. B Water had good numbers of duck with 2 drake Pochard, 5 Tufted Duck and 105 Shoveler being the highlights.

After a coffee I walked out to the beach and found a Coal Tit with the mobile tit flock. As a Snow Bunting had been reported yesterday flying from Hill Head towards Lepe I decided to walk out along the beach hoping it might have relocated to NO. Unfortunately, the only passerines I saw were half a dozen Skylark and a flyover Siskin. Oystercatchers and Turnstones accompanied me as I walked the length of the shingle spit.    

Oystercatcher and Meadow Pipit

It was fairly quiet from the Sailing Club with a single Bar-tailed Godwit being the highlight amongst the feeding Dunlin, Grey Plover and Ringed Plover. I walked to the sluice to check out the scrape and counted 11 Avocet, the peak winter count so far.  

A brief stop at the Reedy Ditch produced the highlight of the day, a lovely Short-eared Owl quartering over P Shore. It showed well at 3:10pm and then again at 3:35pm, even landing on a post briefly.

Short-eared Owl photos by Ian Williamson