Langstone Harbour Wildlife

The season is terning...

2010-08-30T17:36:00.011+01:00

Monday, 30 August

By now many of the terns which bred at Hayling Oysterbeds and in Langstone Harbour will have started on their annual migration back to wintering quarters in Africa. Others will hang around in British waters before they also leave. Whatever the status or location of these birds they have all departed their nesting areas. Well all but one pair that is. A very late nesting pair of Common Tern is still feeding two young on the north island of the Oysterbeds lagoon. They hatched their eggs on 08 August so the young are now almost three weeks old. I find it remarkable they have survived the last week of rainy and (at times) windy weather but they have. I visited the reserve last Friday and found them begging for food from their parents. The fact that the parents haven’t given up in the recent weather is admirable. Well, perhaps it’s more hormonally-led behaviour. A similarly late pair of Common Terns in 2006 eventually successfully fledged there two young in early September so this late nesting isn’t without precedent. The previous fledglings which I referred to in my previous post were finally led away from the lagoon on 16 August. I was lucky, and felt privileged, to witness their departure. One of the adults came in and fed one of its two young and then, without any calling that I could hear, started on its way back to the main harbour. As it got ten metres or so away from the lagoon islands one and then both youngsters flew up and followed it out. One was a bit smaller and blunter-winged than the other but, as a family group, they disappeared tentatively into the distance. They increased the total of fledged Common Terns from the reserve this year by two…. it currently stands at 82.

I’ve not been out much since last week but in sunnier conditions earlier this month there were a lot of hoverflies to be seen. I managed to get images of some of them, and even had a go at identifying a few. Having spent some time wandering around with a previous warden at Farlington Marshes in years gone by, someone who specialized in surveying and identifying these creatures, some of the identification stuff has rubbed off on me (I emphasize the “some” there!). Hoverflies I CAN get into, I suppose because many of them are very colourful and are a good subject for macro-photography. I even remembered some of the Latin names (most insects do not have common names, so you HAVE to learn the Latin). The key to locating the commoner species is to find some late-summer flowering plants, and look for them nectaring (and wait for the sun to come back out...not necessarily in that order….). Here’s a couple that I saw at the Oysterbeds, taking nectar from the yellow lowering Common Ragwort, an important source of nectar for many insects in the summer:

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Sphaerophoria scripta......................................Scaeva pyrastri

My visit to the reserve last Friday also coincided with a high spring tide and a good selection of autumn passage migrants. Along with several hundred Dunlin, Ringed Plovers, Redshanks and Turnstone a nice group of five juvenile Curlew Sandpipers and a Ruff had dropped in. The continued presence of an Osprey in the harbour had shifted the main roost of Oystercatchers in the harbour from the main harbour islands to the outer embankment of the Oysterbeds, with a total of 1276 counted. Quite impressive. A smaller number of Grey Plover (38) and Knot (3) were also seen. Seven Whimbrels, two Greenshanks and three Common Sandpipers completed the list of waders. Also of note were seven Little Terns with the gathering of Common Terns on the shingle spit just to the south of the lagoon, while single juvenile Black and Arctic Terns dropped in or flew past. Finally, the first returning Black-necked Grebe of the season was in the main harbour channel on the falling tide. Later I dropped by the Wildlife Trust reserve at Southmoor where at least 70 Yellow Wagtails had gathered to feed amongst the cattle. A Redstart and a couple of Wheatears were also here (four of the latter were also seen earlier at the Oysterbeds), while nearby three late Swifts were feeding over the pools at Budds Sewage Farm along with fifty or so Swallows and Sand Martins.

Still going....

2010-08-05T16:33:00.007+01:00

Thursday, 05 August

Well, it’s almost the end of the breeding season for the sea birds at Hayling Oysterbeds but not quite! Currently the pair of Common Terns that I featured in my last update still has two half-grown young, while two other pairs are incubating eggs still… Three more young Black-headed Gulls have just made it onto the final total for fledging by this species as they can now fly around. They are of course still begging for food on the lagoon islands, but eventually as the adults bring in food less regularly they will learn to feed for themselves and move on (or follow their parents out to the main harbour).

During the last set of high daytime tides up to 300 Common Terns and 11 Little Terns gathered on the lagoon islands, making for a spectacular site especially when they all wheeled around in response to a passing Peregrine or distant soaring Buzzard. A few Sandwich Terns appeared more occasionally, while a few evenings ago an Arctic Skua flew through the reserve putting everything into temporary flight. These are rare visitors to the harbour (the nearest breeding grounds are in northern Scotland) and in five seasons of being one of the wardens at the Oysterbeds I have never seen one here in the summer. They feed by kleptoparasitism (literally, parasitism by theft). Typically they chase terns and gulls to force them to drop or disgorge their food, their agile and swift flight combined with larger size (compared with the smaller terns) aiding their success rate. The bird at the Oysterbeds was quickly pursued by one of two of the local gulls, and quickly continued on its way over the harbour.

Interestingly it has been suggested that young Oystercatchers can engage in intraspecific kleptoparasitism, steeling food from adults. However, I wonder if some of this can actually be attributed to observations of juveniles staying in the same vicinity as their parents for weeks if not months after their fledging and the loose family group still functioning in terms of the adults still supporting the youngsters? Certainly family groups can still be identified early in the autumn long after fledging has taken place, with the juveniles often begging for food from the adults, often successfully. At first the juveniles will feed exclusively on worms, but many will learn the adult skills of locating and cracking into the shells of crabs, cockles and mussels.

Late display from the Common Terns continues and I managed to capture the following images of some of the posturing the adults get involved in when courting.

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The next update, as the season finishes, may start deviating away from the breeding sea birds so what better way to start than to introduce a good place for seeing our smallest species of owl? The Little Owl is a scarce but well distributed resident breeding species on Hayling Island that can be seen hunting both day and night in the summer. Several pairs occur along the west side of the island, and the billyline track just inland and opposite the Oysterbeds is a good place to look for them. Currently the most regular place for easy views is from the gate on the east side of the track opposite (and just north of) the oysterbeds lagoon. Birds have recently been seen perched in adjacent trees and on the pile of old telegraph poles just in front of the gate. Look more distantly from the track before approaching the gate, as it is easy to flush birds off the lying poles before you see them there!

End of breeding season almost in sight

2010-07-22T08:44:00.013+01:00

22 July, 2010

Having missed an update last week I have to report on rather a lot so will try to be as succinct as possible. The major event recently was the strong winds and high tides of 14th and 15th July. The overnight tide and gales during the early hours of 15th July threw waves across the top of some of both South and North Islands in the lagoon and wiped out a total of three broods and seven nests of Common Tern, plus a few very late Black-headed Gull nests. The combined height of the tide and waves reached over 5.4 metres in places, and is unprecedented during the last five years of our wardening. All of the ‘top’ areas of both islands are over 5.2 metres (most are considerably higher, notably the new shingle recharge area) and would not have been inundated under any of the high spring tides that I have recorded in recent years. The timing of the stormy conditions could have been a lot worse of course, as an earlier event could have wiped out many more small tern and gull chicks and nests. Overall it has already been a very good season for Common Tern and Black-headed Gull breeding success. Exact numbers will follow in due course but it is likely to be at least 1:1 productivity (i.e. averaging at least one fledged young per breeding pair) for each species.

Predation of tern chicks has continued and sadly two broods that survived the storms of last week have now disappeared. Continued predation by Mediterranean Gull is the likely cause. One brood has appeared since then, at the southern end of South Island. These are likely to be the last new chicks we see on the reserve this summer. As is typical the first egg hatched a day before the second and until the second egg hatched the female looked very uncomfortable trying to incubate egg and brood chick at the same time. The male soon came in, passed a tiny fish to the female. She then fed the new chick for the first time.

Various other very late attempts at re-nesting will probably come to nothing as the colony begins to break up. In recent days I have counted up to 130 adult and 60 juvenile Common Terns on the reserve, many of the juveniles still being fed by their parents but still returning occasionally to their nesting territory on the islands. As time moves on more will remain in the harbour, some on the shingle spit to the south of the lagoon, before finally dispersing more widely. In the meantime the recent increase in display and territorial activity by some of the adults provides an opportunity to observe all stages of the breeding cycle in one quick scan with binoculars! I might add that the sheer spectacle of watching terns flying within metres of you as they pass between harbour and lagoon continues to be a delight to watch. The photographic opportunities are limitless too (the images below were taken with an 85mm macro lens!!).

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Apart from a few newly fledging juvenile Black-headed Gulls, and some older juveniles remaining on the islands, there are now only three smaller gull chicks left. I will continue watching these to (hopefully) add them to the overall figures when they too fledge. There's been a noticeable recent increase in territorial activity with some of the remaining adult gulls re-affirming territories for next year I, with the camera capturing some interesting freeze-frame motion shots of their posturing!

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It’s not been so good a season for Oystercatcher or Ringed Plovers, with the latter failing to fledge any youngsters and the former only one. This is the latest image of the juvenile Oystercatcher; it is still being fed worms by its parents, but for the last couple of weeks it has learnt to wash them free of mud for itself (previously the adults were only presenting it with pre-washed worms!).

As the season also draws to a close out on the main Langstone Harbour islands the success of the Little Terns out there is being indicated by the regular appearance of small numbers of juveniles accompanying some adults at the Oysterbeds. Encouragingly these birds have “found” the new shingle area at the north end of the reserve and are currently using it as a loafing site at high tide. I counted a maximum of seven juveniles and four adults the other day. Just in case there is any doubt as to the differences between juvenile Little and Common Terns two instructional images appear below. In fresh plumage juvenile Little Terns have bold dark inner markings on their pale upperpart feathers (much like juvenile Sandwich Terns do) whereas Common Terns, although more variable, have narrower and more regular “sub-terminal” markings and buffy edges to the same slightly darker feathers. Of course, size is an indicator too, with Little Terns really being…. little!

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Hungry fledglings (and Med Gulls)

2010-07-06T22:32:00.026+01:00

Tuesday, 06 July

As June passed into July I had been continually busy with recording numbers of young birds fledging on the reserve. Overall it looks like a good year but with a sting in the tail. I was hoping that the later nesters now hatching young would do as well as the early nesters and make it an excellent year for breeding productivity, but this is not going to be the case. The disappearance of small chicks on the island in the lagoon continues, with both Mediterranean and Lesser Black-backed Gulls the culprits. They predate the chicks to eat them (enough said…as it does get a bit gruesome) and are both efficient and persistent. On Sunday, as the wind speed increased to a fresh south-westerly, a Lesser Black-backed Gull tucked into the colony like it was fast food station, clearing out three broods of Black-headed Gulls during the afternoon. Unfortunately (for the small tern chicks) I have established that there are at least two adult Mediterranean Gulls predating. Yesterday both were patrolling (read ‘hunting’ there) the islands at the same time. One took an egg as well as a chick or two…

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Adult Med Gull patrolling over South Island looking for food. You would think that more of the nesting terns would drive them away (like the tern already in flight the second image is about to do).

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Fortunately most of the tern chicks are either fledged or very nearly and are very hungry as one of the images below indicates! Their first proper feathers vary quite a bit in colour between individuals; this sometimes becomes helpful for me tracking individual broods. They all stay to the same relatively small area during their first three to four weeks of life which also helps. I saw my first one taking flight on the first day of the month and yesterday many were trying out their wings as they rose into the air above the island. At one stage they looked like dozens of jack-in-the-boxes exploding from their homes! A couple ventured southwards over the main harbour waters while others flapped about over the lagoon. Many will leave the site soon. A few images below:

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Black-headed Gulls fledglings are also at the leaving stage, or have already left, and yet again this summer I left it to the last minute to count them before they disperse. There are more to come but so far almost 500 have fledged. The remainder are still hungry and their high pitched begging calls can be heard all around the lagoon.

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A few Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns (images below) are still on nests, either failed breeders from earlier in the season having another try or very late starters. Courtship activity can be seen from both of these species at the moment.

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And last but not least…. the Oystercatchers. It has been another week of swings and roundabouts on the reserve for this species. As one of the other pairs on North Island lost their two very small recently-hatched chicks over the weekend, the pair on South Island has been busy feeding their fast-growing youngster. Both parents, especially the male, can frequently be seen bringing in worms from the harbour to the lagoon. At other times the youngster shadows the male as he finds food around the edge of South Island and is quick to make sure that anything found is eaten!

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The nice and the nasty

2010-06-29T11:54:00.012+01:00

Tuesday, 29 June

Spending time watching a sea bird colony gives me the chance to see some fascinating and incredible behaviour. I have mentioned before the predation of tern chicks by Mediterranean Gulls and, right at the end of a long and hot weekend at Hayling Oysterbeds, I witnessed yet another predation event. The same returning adult male Med Gull took under ten minutes of patrolling over the islands in the lagoon on Sunday evening to nab a small Common Tern chick. The deadly act all happened, as usual, in the blink of an eye, and for the most part went undetected by the other birds. Even the terns themselves seemed mostly oblivious to the overhead menace, excepting one of two which drove the gull away from their own young. Perhaps these are the wise ones. But most are not.

The Med Gull, with its beak full of stolen booty, landed quite close to me at the northeast end of the ‘northwest embankment’ near to the main weir. It was here that I was able to make a few short digiscoped video recordings. These show how the gull mashes and squishes the corpse into a package more suitable for swallowing by bashing it against the rocks. It attempts several times to swallow it whole, and will eventually succeed, but on this occasion I was unable to record it as it was chased off by a Black-headed Gull. Still, the poor dead chick was already halfway swallowed…

Sadly, this gull has almost certainly been responsible for more deaths of tern chicks than I have witnessed. Last Friday I watched it patrolling over the islands for a long time before I took a break from the lagoon area. On returning I found it sat on the water with a rather large (tern chick-sized) lump in its throat! Most of the tern chicks are now too large for Med Gulls to predate, but there are several new broods of small chicks, just the ‘right’ size for predatory Med Gulls, appearing on South Island. Hopefully this Med Gull will go away before it has more impact on the breeding productivity of the terns this summer.

Prior to the above incident I had been taking pictures of the Common Terns in flight, and managed a couple of pleasing shots (bear in mind these are heavily cropped images):

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There seemed to be lots of fish in the lagoon (or perhaps they were just more visible, coming to the edge and the surface in the hot weather) and one particular Common Tern was taking advantage of it. Many times it came back to the same spot in the lagoon, hovered, plunge-dived, emerged with a small silvery fish, and flew straight back to feed its hungry chick on South Island. Most of the terns fish elsewhere in the harbours. Some obviously go as far as the south end of Chichester Harbour or the sea off Hayling Bay and return overland across Hayling Island to the breeding colony at the Oysterbeds, a round trip of perhaps five or six miles. Prey species appears very variable. And it’s not just fish either. Shore crabs are currently being bought in by many of the adults, the young not having quite the trouble in swallowing them as they were a week or so ago. What look like tiny shrimps are also being bought back to feed the young. If there’s anyone (perhaps a student) out there particularly interested in marine biology then there is opportunity for lots of observation-based field work here, as I reckon that most of the items being bought in by the terns could be identified to near-species (or species) level with the aid of a telescope.

Good weather is helping the birds

2010-06-22T23:57:00.013+01:00

Tuesday, 22 June

It’s not really too surprising that the fine weather this summer is currently helping the sea birds to do well at the Oysterbeds. Since my last update yet more Common Tern young have hatched and, just in the last couple of days or so, several new incoming pairs have set up territory and have begun nesting. These are perhaps likely to be pairs that have failed on there first breeding attempt on the main Langstone Harbour islands. In fact, I strongly suspect that, as well as the attraction of the new shingle on South Island this year, the increase in the numbers of breeding Common Terns at the Oysterbeds this summer is also been a function of their higher breeding success here. Although second attempts are often not as successful as first attempts some have gone on to raise young on the reserve late in the season here during recent years. My guess is that ALL of the successful breeders quickly return in the next spring to the site they were last successful on, which helps to attract in all the others (at the Oysterbeds this has all been helped by the improved habitat, of course!). Like Little Terns, the provision of viable breeding sites for Common Terns is now important in Langstone Harbour, bearing in mind that the harbour, including the Oysterbeds, support over 1% of the UK breeding population of this species.

OK, so you’re bored with the stats.... Moving on swiftly, some of the tern chicks are now a fortnight old. During next week some will be taking their virgin flights. In the meantime they are jostling for position on the islands. South Island is positively bristling with hungry chicks! Inevitably there are a few squabbles and fracases, mostly minor but sometimes more violent. Most days I spend at least some time watching the terns closely and have witnessed quite a few attacks on chicks from adults. Most of them appear to involve neighbouring adults and chicks, the latter getting too close and wandering into a neighbours territory. But it does seem that a few Common Terns are much more prone to unprovoked attacks on chicks, and I have seen adults attacking small home-alone chicks still at the nest site while the parents are away. It’s not always entirely clear if these more aggressive attacks are made by adults with their own chicks or not.

Those who have visited the reserve recently (wot, you mean you haven’t visited yet?!) will have seen the strange wooden structures on the South Island. As noted in the previous post they are “chick shelters” and specially placed! I have been really pleased to see that many of the chicks are using them for a variety of reasons. Mostly they use them for shade during the heat of the day, or as a wind break. Others are using them as a hiding place from unwanted attention from neighbouring adults. A slightly comical video clip can be seen below...

Predation of chicks from incoming aerial predators is a real risk but so far it has been largely absent. I have chosen my words carefully, as this evening two tern chicks were taken in quick succession by a hungry adult male Mediterranean Gull. Maybe he is the same bird which predated chicks for a couple of weeks last summer. After his chick feast he flew to South Binness Island in the main Langstone Harbour where some 400 pairs of Mediterranean Gulls are nesting. The tern chicks need to grow up fast! Earlier this month I had seen a Mediterranean Gull take eggs from the colony, on each occasion apparently stray eggs from the bare shingle (of which there are a scattering, if you look really closely through a telescope). On Saturday I watched an visiting adult Lesser Black-backed Gull take two Black-headed Gull chicks from the colony.

The young Black-headed Gulls have grown fast, and the first one has already fledged. The following images show how developed some of the larger fledglings are (click on each one to enlarge them). The one in the first image is looking out over the lagoon waters just prior to taking its first fluttery flight on Sunday.

Many more young will have fledged by this time next week. But, as there are still a few birds still on eggs, and a few very small chicks, the fledging season will be protracted. Already more and more broods are moving away from the lagoon islands and ending up around the edge of the lagoon or in the sheltered bay just to the south.

For a complete picture story of the progress of the various species on the Oysterbeds this summer please visit Peter Drury's excellent photo gallery.

Just a little bit of bad news for the Oystercatchers. One of the three pairs nesting on the North Island has failed within 48 hours of successfully hatching one chick. Exact cause unknown, but a similar thing happened to this pair last year. There are two pairs still on eggs. The pair on South Island still have their one youngster, which has already got into the high tide roosting habit of its parents (rather than trying to snuggle under the wings or body of mum!).

A tern for the better

2010-06-15T22:03:00.006+01:00

Tuesday, 15 June 2010

Sorry, I couldn't resist the media-like headline! But it does sum it up quite well. The weekend was a success for the birds at the Oysterbeds. More of the clutches of Common Tern eggs hatched and, up until late yesterday evening, all of the adults that had hatched young still had some or all of their family. There are plenty of broods of two and three young. In fact, Sunday gave me an opportunity to count pretty much all of the young chicks as the adults kept coming and going to feed them. The final tallies were: 80 pairs nesting; 46 pairs with young; at least 104 young including 16 broods of three. It was too windy yesterday to establish comparative numbers after another 24 hours but at least three more clutches had hatched.

From a predators viewpoint all these chicks are potential food packages. In effect, the islands in the lagoon are currently a natural fast-food restaurant ready to be turned into a take away by any hungry predator! One worrying aspect of the weather at the moment is the wind strength. This makes finding food for the terns more difficult, and both adults will more often leave the chicks 'home alone' to find food for them, this exposing them to increased chances of avian predation (in this case, gulls). Once again, as one day last week, I noticed that in the moderate breeze of yesterday more of the food items being bought back to the colony and fed to the chicks were tiny flat fish rather than slender (and easier-to-swallow) silvery fish.

I have provided some artificial shelters for the chicks. These are just simple constructions of wood that were placed close to individual nests. Already by Sunday several of these shelters (there are nine in all) were being used by tern chicks. I watched one chick disappear into the darkness of one (an upturned V-shaped shelter with a peak of about 20 centimeters) only to scamper out, like a starving clockwork Gremlin, when it saw that its siblings were being fed by dad!

Mediterranean Gulls continue to provide a threat to the chicks, and yesterday evening I witnessed, for a third time recently, an adult patrol the colony and leave with a stray gull egg. It could easily have been a tern chick. They need to grow fast to reduce their risk of predation from Med Gulls.

The Oystercatchers on South Island lost one of their chicks last Thursday night/Friday morning. I'm not sure why, but a proportion of wader chicks do seem to die in their third day of life. This may be because they never learn to feed properly and, once their post-hatching energy resources are used up, they perish. The remaining chick seems to be doing well. Oystercatchers are very good attentive parents and bring in fresh food for their young. This is unusual for a species of wader. Most wader chicks learn to feed for themselves within hours of hatching. Oystercatchers learn very slowly, and are fed right up until and often after fledging by both parents, predominantly the male to begin with. As well as feeding on worms, they feed on crustaceans and shellfish such as crabs, cockles and clams. The skills needed to crack the shell of a cockle and prize the contents out are learned. I have seen juveniles, fledged in August, still begging for food from their parents in October. Worms form the staple diet of these younger, inexperienced birds.

Common Terns face wet and windy 24 hours

2010-06-10T23:25:00.016+01:00

Thursday, 10 June

It was a damp afternoon at the Oysterbeds today, and with an increasing northeasterly wind and the forecast of a period of heavy rain through the first few hours of daylight tomorrow morning things do not look quite so rosy for the Common Terns. There are now at least 24 broods of small chicks on the islands in the lagoon and the first signs of stress were appearing. The showery rain wasn't too much of a problem, as there were gaps in the wetness and the chicks are still all small enough to be brooded successfully by the females (i.e. they fit underneath them!). However, it was likely the wind strength was becoming troublesome, as a high proportion of the prey being bought in by the adult terns for the chicks were very small flat fish. Not TOO much of a problem, but it became obvious that some of the chicks weren't able to swallow them, and there weren't too many alternatives being bought in. Yesterday there were plenty of tiny silvery fish being bought back for the chicks which were ideal.

Mike, our evening volunteer, later reported to me that he had seen a tern chick predated by a opportunist visiting Herring Gull which snatched it from a pair of squabbling Black-headed Gulls after they had plucked it from South Island and dropped it into the lagoon waters. Okay, one down, quite a few to go.

Here's a couple of short video clips of the terns that I have taken during the last two days. They show the same pair of terns from two different angles with their three young:

Oystercatcher family relations

2010-06-09T23:56:00.007+01:00

Wednesday, 09 June

I have delayed some of the next few snippets of information from Hayling Oysterbeds until this evening… simply because I wanted to present the full story. It concerns an Oystercatcher chick being accepted and brooded by a Black-headed Gull and the (presumed) subsequent shift back to its real parents. Let me explain.

There has been a pair of Oystercatchers on a nest scrape with two eggs right in the middle of the mixed Common Tern and Black-headed Gull colony on South Island for the last four weeks. The eggs were, by my reckoning, due to hatch on Monday. So, with expectation, I set myself up to watch on that day. I duly found a very small Oystercatcher chick but watched as it staggered around in front of a Black-headed Gull nest before venturing onto the nest and, eventually, under the sitting female gull! This is over 1 metre from the Oystercatcher, which was still sitting tightly on her nest scrape seemingly oblivious to what was going on next door, so to speak. What amazed me was that there was no adverse reaction by the gull, it behaved exactly as it would have done if the chick was her own, brooding it at the nest. A while later I saw that the chick had ventured out again and was lying near a neighbouring gull nest where it was quickly attacked. It made its way back to the first nest and, this time, managed to be welcomed by not only the sitting female but also the attendant male who had recently flown in.

On Tuesday evening it was obvious that the Oystercatcher had at least one hatched chick underneath her (rather than eggs) and the aforementioned pair of gulls were sitting on just eggs at their nest. There were no other signs to indicate what had gone on during my absence, but I was confident that the Oystercatchers would lead their chick, or hopefully chicks, away from the nest scrape during the following morning…

Cue this afternoon after ‘the following morning’ had gone, and it was no surprise to turn up on site and find the pair of Oystercatchers had indeed moved their chicks away from the nest scrape and down to the water’s edge. Yes, I just wrote ‘chicks’. There are two. One for each egg! So, by cunning powers of deduction I can say with reasonable accuracy that the Oystercatchers hatched each egg on consecutive days (it’s not uncommon for Oystercatchers to hatch their clutch over more than 24 hours) and that the first chick that hatched was taken under the wing (literally!) by a neighbouring, or should that be neighbourly, Black-headed Gull. I have noticed before that Oystercatchers aren’t too good at incubating and brooding at the same time, often leaving the first chicks that have hatched on one side of the nest scrape while incubation of the other eggs continues for up to a day or so. I once saw a female Oystercatcher determined to keep incubating her eggs long after the first chick had hatched which resulted in the chick dying because the adults, not even the male, recognised that they already had a chick to feed. So, in this recent case of Oystercatcher hatching, the gulls have done the Oystercatchers a favour.

Both Oystercatcher chicks are being brooded by the female and fed by the male this evening. I just hope that the oldest chick doesn’t think that all gulls are friendly as sadly they are often not. I have seen, on more than one occasion, Oystercatcher chicks being killed by gulls. But you probably didn’t want to know that!

For the sceptics out there I took several video clips of the gull brooding the Oystercatcher chick, two of which can be seen below. The quality isn’t great due to distance and haze but they do provide a record of what went on:

[Of course, it could just be that the gulls were incubating an Oystercatcher egg amongst their own, but unless their eggs hatch soon I think that’s unlikely as Oystercatcher and Black-headed Gulls share approximately the same incubation period]

Common Terns now with chicks at the Oysterbeds

2010-06-08T23:49:00.011+01:00

Tuesday 08 June

Another update from Hayling Oysterbeds! Common Terns have now started hatching their eggs, the first yesterday morning, and this evening there are at least five pairs with young. Being so small they are easily brooded by their parents (usually the female) and not easy to detect unless you watch them for long periods or chance upon a chick actually poking their heads out from underneath the adult. They do sit differently as well, with wings slightly looser to the body and tail held more horizontally. Lots of squirming about by the adult is also a good indication, although sometimes they are quite fidgety while incubating eggs. Two of the pairs I saw with young this evening are between markers A and B so should provide good views from the seawall path for those with binoculars and exceptional views for those using a telescope. There are now a total of 78 nesting pairs on the lagoon islands. The increase in numbers since last week is perhaps likely to be a result of second nesting attempts by those which had early failures through tidal flooding out on the main harbour islands (some nested too low on the shingle beaches). Will we get to 80 pairs I wonder? That’s about 50% or so of the current total Langstone Harbour breeding population.

Yesterday I witnessed a Mediterranean Gull take a misplaced egg from the South Island and then eat it nearby (there was a fully-formed chick inside...nice!). I actually thought it had taken the first tern chick as that’s where the egg was picked up from but it hadn’t (although I would say that I can’t actually say whether the egg was a tern or gull egg – I think the latter but who knows - apart from their slightly smaller size and different shape the eggs of common terns are often very similar in appearance to gull eggs). A pair of adults was patrolling/quartering over the colony later. That’s not good news for the terns as last year such activity heralded the start of a period of chick predation by one individual Mediterranean Gull.

The pair of Little Terns nesting on the new shingle island at the north end of the reserve recently failed but may hopefully try again. Certainly they are still in the area. Another bird is regularly coming to fish in the western corner of the lagoon. It's a distinctive individual as it has a displaced secondary feather in its left wing and provides some awesome views if you watch from near the low wooden rails at the end of the seawall path. I think it must be a bird nesting on the main harbour islands as yesterday it left the lagoon, with caught fish, in that direction at least twice. At other times it was just fishing for itself.

Summer 2010 - a fresh start to blogging!

2010-06-01T16:21:00.002+01:00

Tuesday 01 June

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog and I have now decided to use it to waffle on about the wildlife, again mostly birds, at West Hayling Local Nature Reserve (aka Hayling Oysterbeds) where I am currently working as the Seasonal Warden. There might also be updates from Farlington Marshes and other sites around Langstone Harbour….

The Oysterbeds had a bit of a make over in April when the Wildlife Trust, working closely with Havant Borough Council and the RSPB, and with some money ‘left over’ from the Environment Agency-funded RSPB Langstone Harbour Little Tern project, made some habitat improvements. Work has taken place in two areas. At the oysterbeds lagoon we have recharged (augmented) with shingle and topped with ballast approximately 50% of the length of the southern island, while at the same time re-profiling the sides. At the northern end of the reserve we have made a completely new area of bare shingle habitat, using the same materials used at the lagoon, on the highest ‘finger island’ there.

OK, you’re now getting bored and want some news about wildlife. Here goes…

The late May bank holiday provided me with an opportunity for a thorough look around and a fair bit of bird watching on the reserve. As typically this time produces a late spring peak in the number of concurrent first nesting attempts by the ground nesting species this worked quite well for me in getting my notes up to date. Currently, we have 461 pairs of nesting Black-headed Gulls, a total arrived at by a one-off nest count undertaken by myself in fine weather on 24 May. On this day the first major hatching of eggs was taking place after the first had hatched the previous day, with a total of 35 broods (or partially hatched clutches) noted. Subsequently many more clutches have hatched and the islands are bristling with small gull chicks and attendant adults. The total of 461 compares with 450 nests counted on 21 May last year.

On bank holiday Monday I confirmed the presence of 65 pairs of Common Terns on nests, with at least four other pairs displaying and nest scraping. I am plotting all the locations of all nesting attempts by the Common Terns, helped partly by the placement of lettered posts along the length of both islands. The majority of them are on the new shingle recharge area on South Island (between markers A and E), with some up to posts F, and a further three on the south-western slope of North Island between markers N and O. There have also recently been interest by up to two pairs on the northwest embankment to the lagoon, c.10 metres northeast of the ‘south’ fence line, but they haven’t yet settled. The first eggs are due to hatch on South Island on about 07 June but the majority of the clutches were not laid until just after the last of the frosty nights in the third week of May. So, hopefully, it will become busy with tern chicks during the middle two weeks of the month.

Little Terns have again chosen not to nest on the lagoon islands. However, one pair has found the new shingle area at the north end of the reserve, joining the seven decoys which I expertly (some may say deceptively!) placed in a ‘colony’ towards the furthest end of the island. The real McCoy (not the decoys…sorry I couldn’t resist) is slightly closer to the landward path on the Oysterbeds (i.e. in front of the decoys) and can easily be found by looking from the big bramble bush next to the pile of large ‘reject’ stones. However expert or not I was in the placement of the decoys (which were provided by Chris Cockburn – thank you Chris) it has worked and one pair of Little Terns is a 100% increase on last year. They are just about to enter their third week of incubation. They typically take 21-22 days at the Oysterbeds to hatch. The stones under the decoys may take a bit longer….

Oystercatchers are having a bumpy ride again this year. Three pairs are nesting on the lagoon islands, one on the south and two on the north. The one on South Island, between markers C and D, is a relay after a previous nesting attempt failed on account of Black-headed Gulls taking over the nest scrape! As I carried out the gull nest count last week I confirmed that these gulls are still incubating Oystercatcher eggs!! Who knows what happens when (if) the eggs hatch. One of the two pairs on North Island has now failed twice, the first attempt was hijacked by gulls (who may well still be sitting on Oystercatcher eggs as well) and the second was washed away by high tides last week. The other pair on North Island is on a nest at marker Q, easily seen from the eastern path around the lagoon, and is (I think) a first attempt. The pairs at C/D and Q are due to hatch on about the 07 June and 18 June assuming a full incubation period of 27 days for each. Nine other pairs are scattered about the reserve, including several on the northwest embankment. Two of the pairs on the outer embankments at the north end of the reserve are currently on nests, but they take their chances with fisherman out there! The species can be extraordinarily uncanny in their choice of nest site however, and several years ago a pair nested and successfully raised one young to fledging on the shingle spit just south of the lagoon. It can be done but only without human disturbance.

Single pairs of Ringed Plovers have settled on both the northwest embankment of the lagoon (currently sitting on a nest, although difficult to see even through a telescope) and on the northern embankments/islands. The latter pair had previously tried to nest on the new shingle area but failed (nest robbed of eggs) but I think are trying again. At least one new male has been present this weekend but is constantly being chased around by the resident bird.

The spring migration of waders though the reserve has been very slow this last few weeks and I only really have tales of one evening this month which was worth the trouble of looking for migrants: on 26 May a nice mixed flock of 16 Ringed Plovers, 10 Sanderlings and four Dunlins were along the shoreline just south of the lagoon, and a late Greenshank was along one of the outer embankments. One or two Whimbrels, Grey Plovers and Turnstones continue to be seen throughout.

Winter: brrrr.....

2010-01-09T22:00:00.002Z

Saturday, 09 January 2010

My first entry for a while and how things have changed! The weather in the UK now dominates every news flash and conversation and, of course, thoughts about the effect of it on our wildlife. The temperatures haven’t been that low (and are currently forecast to rise) and certainly not as low as that experienced by the UK’s wildlife in similar weather in the early 1980’s. Nevertheless, with temperatures falling to minus 6.4 degrees Celsius at Farlington Marshes recently and daytime temperatures rising little above freezing this will undoubtedly have a significant effect on bird populations. But it’s not really (or just) low temperatures that are affecting the birds. The most significant feature and product of the current weather is the ice and snow cover. Many smaller water bodies are completely frozen over and larger ones almost so. The landscape is also at least ankle-deep in snow which is severely limiting the availability of open ground on which many species need to find food in order to survive. The knock-on effect of widespread snow cover was immediately evident last Wednesday (06 January) after a night and morning of almost continual snow across Britain: thrushes, larks, plovers and pipits were all on the move, despite the grim travelling conditions. Thrushes, especially refugee Redwings and Fieldfares, can now be seen almost anywhere with bare areas of ground (e.g. under hedgerows and trees) or berries (often on ornamental trees and shrubs in parks and gardens). Many Lapwings have left southwards (to France and Spain) and those that remain are mostly confined to the open mudflats and saltmarhes which so far haven’t frozen (at least locally). Skylarks and Woodlarks were also travelling in numbers but have now stopped. Hopefully they have all found a place to feed otherwise their future is bleak.

Farlington Marshes and the Langstone Harbour islands are snow-covered (just in case I didn’t make that clear!) and look like I have never seen the area before. The very wet and mild late autumn of last year now seems like a distant memory. All the ponds, lakes and ditches are frozen over, with open water confined almost entirely to the stream overlooked by the reserve’s information building. Most of the ducks and geese have abandoned the site and can now be found only in the harbour, with concentrations along the north shore (especially Broadmarsh and Southmoor).

At least two Pale-bellied Brent Geese are now in residence around the reserve, and several elsewhere in the harbour. They can be found with the large flocks of Dark-bellied Brent Geese but often take time to find. As their names suggest the most obvious differences between these two “forms” of Brent Geese relate to the tone of their bellies. Importantly, Pale-bellied Brents have the white of their vent extending between their legs and onto their bellies; Dark-bellied Brents are dark in this area. Also, the flanks of Pale-bellied Brents are conspicuously white and frosty; Dark-bellied Brents have smaller off-white flank patches contrasting less with the upperparts. Other subtle differences include: Pale-bellied Brents have browner upperparts whereas Dark-bellied Brents are greyer; Pale-bellied Brents rarely have much more than two small triangular white patches on each side of the neck, whereas Dark-bellied Brents are more variable and often have fuller and more extensive patches extending into the front of the neck. Just to give an example, here’s a short video clip I took a few weeks ago (after the December snowfall) at Farlington of one of the wintering Pale-bellied Brent Geese. The foreground Dark-bellied Brent Goose does provide a useful comparison even if it almost gets in the way!

The reedbed at The Marsh is half flattened by the weight of the snow and has left the Bearded Tits vulnerable to predation from birds of prey. I watched a hungry male Sparrowhawk hunting along the edge of the reeds yesterday which almost took one and persisted for a while looking for more chances as it perched on the open ice before finally giving up and flying off. I wasn’t quite quick enough with my camera and telescope setup to capture this on film, but in true “and here’s one I took earlier” style I did take some video clips of the Beardies feeding near the front edge of the lake a few weeks ago. This is still a good place to look for them, as up to 30 have gathered here to feast on the reed seeds which are clearly abundant this year. Reed Buntings can also been seen well in this area, also feeding on the reed seeds.

Bearded Tits can also be prone to predation from Marsh Harriers, and today one appeared in the area and roosted in the reedbed at Farlington. Earlier in the day it had been hunting over the harbour islands, where there were also two male Hen Harriers. The latter are rarities in the area mid-winter, and another attractive and spectacular species. Their pale grey ghost-like appearance as they quartered over the saltmarhes and islands was a delight to see. Their prey is mostly ground-dwelling birds (e.g. Skylark) and mammals. I would favour the former though. Other birds of prey today included the regular wintering Merlin which seems to live on North Binness and Long Islands, the huge adult female Peregrine, and several Common Buzzards, two of which have recently taken to hunting for Rabbits over the fields at Farlington.

Other scarce birds which have appeared during the last few days as a result of the weather include: a Bittern at Farlington yesterday which landed in the reedbed with prey early afternoon but left west at dusk; a group of four Red-crested Pochards on Thursday which spent much of the day in Bedhampton Creek before leaving east; and a drake Green-winged Teal at Budds Sewage Farm pools, found this morning, which will hopefully stay around a while like the last one at Farlington Marshes did in October/November 2008. Some definitely settled birds (not associated with the recent cold weather) include: two Long-tailed Ducks now in residence in the harbour south of Broadmarsh; up to 37 Avocets in the harbour just west of Farlington Marshes; and up to 20 Black-necked Grebes and three Slavonian Grebes in the main Langstone Channel off West Hayling Oysterbeds.

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Lots to see!

2009-12-10T00:24:00.020Z

Friday, 04 December 2009

High tide 12:16 (4.8m) Low tide 17:54 (0.8m)

Walking through Bedhampton to Broadmarsh and then around Farlington Marshes led me to see a diverse range of bird species today which included one that has become increasingly rare and yet formally iconic of a fine day on a coastal marsh…

One of the main concentrations of Little Grebes in Langstone Harbour is in the Bedhampton Creek and Broadmarsh area, and it is here that I counted exactly 30 this morning. The slipway at Broadmarsh provides one of the best view points for this area, and overlooks the harbour between here, Southmoor and West Hayling too. After the recent gales lots of goodies are currently making this area home: two each of Great Northern Diver (pic below), Slavonian Grebe and Long-tailed Duck, plus at least six Black-necked Grebes. I saw most of these today, plus lots of the commoner Great-crested Grebe, Red-breasted Merganser and Goldeneye. Three Sandwich Terns were also fishing distantly between Southmoor and Hayling Oysterbeds. Other miscellany here included the first of two Kingfishers, a party of seven Shovelers on the water with some Wigeon, and a fly-over Lesser Redpoll. But, considering I was having too much of a good thing (!) I moved onwards to Farlington, where some more good birds would surely be waiting...

About 150 Redshank and a single Black-tailed Godwit were roosting on the saltmarsh in Chalkdock itself, visible easily from the northeast seawall path at Farlington. The godwit was one of only four I saw all day, the low number probably a result of a mass movement of the late autumn flocks to other favoured wintering sites themselves made more attractive by the recent heavy rains (they especially like flooded fields along river valleys in wet winters). Next up was a juvenile female Merlin which appeared on North Binness Island and gave nice views until it flew further away and re-settled on Long Island. Little Egrets were doing their usual high-tide thing on the saltmarsh, hunting small prey brought in by the tid

e. Shelducks were gathered in three rafts on the water and, together with some more birds later on, contributed to a total of 273 for the day.

The Hayfield at Farlington was covered in Dark-bellied Brent Geese, about 1300 in all, and was one of those predictable things I like about the reserve: after the first cold night for a long time the Brent were feeding in their favoured “frosty morning” field. And, just to confirm again that these birds are so habitual in their choice of feeding sites I quickly located a bird with coloured rings which I have recorded annually since 1998/1999, often in the very same part of the field that it was in today! These really are remarkable birds. It is a 5000+ miles round trip to the tundra on the Taimyr Peninsular in western Russia where they breed, so this one (first ringed in Devon in February 1996) would now have travelled at least 77,500 miles during its life. Given that they can live for over 27 years it will hopefully put a few more miles on the clock and return for a few more years yet.

While I was taking pictures of the geese a smart adult male Peregrine flew low past, chasing something almost into the ground along the track I was stood along, but towered up and away thus abandoning its potential meal. Only later, when I walked further on, did I discover the identity of the other bird: a Common Snipe. I flushed it at close range, unaware that it was crouching beside a bramble bush in some long grass just a few feet away. Common Snipe must be a relatively unusual prey species for Peregrines given that they usually fly to and from their daytime roost sites and night time feeding areas under the cover of near darkness.

Several Stonechats, Reed Buntings and Redwings later and I was overlooking the main reed bed from west of the information building. The Marsh Harrier that has been present on and off during the last month was nowhere to be seen, but Bearded Tits were very much in evidence. At least three groups were calling from within the reed bed, the most easily visible being at the lake where they could be seen alongside a group of Reed Buntings, all feeding on the reed seed heads.

The recent heavy rains have flooded the main stream and lake area so there was no high tide roost of waders in that area except for another 250 Redshank hiding on the scrape. Large numbers of waders were gathered on both Little Binness and Oysterhouse Islands. The former held 32 Avocets while the latter held many thousands of (mostly) Dunlin. The southern point of the reserve was now the place to be. I was told, on arriving there, that I had just missed a Short-eared Owl that had flushed at close range by others from the seawall around the point field but had flown towards the Deeps. I walked to the gate overlooking the Deeps to have a look for it. Fortunately (for me) it was still there, and gave excellent views during the next twenty minutes as it hunted over the point field before it flew out into the harbour. This is the iconic bird I referred to in my introduction. Until the late 1990’s several would spend most winters in Langstone Harbour and passage birds in the autumn and spring were regular. Since that time they have become much rarer and today’s bird is, as far as I know, the first record since the early year. I hope it stays around, as these really are stunning birds and frequently afford great views at Farlington, as this one did this afternoon.

The point field also held two Dartford Warblers, including a bright male associating with a female Stonechat, and at least 70 Greenfinches, which at one stage were mobbing the owl as it hunted over. A flock of 20+ Meadow Pipits and at least 27 Linnets gathered in the field prior to roosting.

The calm water of the harbour, and now grey skies, made seeing birds in the harbour easy and two Common Scoters, both females or immatures, were quickly located. A juvenile Spoonbill, present in the harbour for much of the last few weeks, was just waking up on Baker’s Island, a Peregrine was around, and an adult Mediterranean Gull flew south.

Summer meets winter

2009-11-06T21:39:00.010Z

Friday, 06 November 2009

This morning saw me looking for overhead passage of diurnally migrating birds from the top of Broadmarsh at the north end of the harbour. In the past this has been a good place to see the annual spectacle of Woodpigeon migration where a five-figure count would have been expected given the date. I was actually rather disappointed as things never really got going this morning and what did petered out quite early. Nevertheless the total of 2960 was still worth getting up early for (I have a long walk to get to the site and the Woodies are early risers!). Other interest was minimal with virtually none of the normal finches moving over and just a handful of Jackdaws, Stock Doves, Starlings, finches and thrushes.

Woodpigeons are one of our commonest resident birds but the ones on the move at the moment don’t fall into that category. But here the explanations get a bit messy with contradictory statements being made by other commentators and evidence to back it all up rather thin on the ground! It is likely, perhaps, that many of these birds are from Scandinavia moving through Britain on their annual migration to areas much further south, probably the cork oak forests of Spain. Certainly many thousands depart from the UK via headlands in Dorset every autumn. But I can’t help but think that maybe some of these birds are British nesters moving southwards to winter in warmer climes (like the Scandinavian birds certainly do – whether they regularly migrate through Britain in any number is still a bit contentious in my opinion). Why can’t our nesters be comprised of both truly resident birds AND partial migrants, numbers of the latter varying each year due to the abundance of natural food like beech mast. Food for thought…

Moving swiftly on…. and back to one of my favourite British birds….the Dark-bellied Brent Goose. Once the pigeon migration had stopped I started making counts of the number of young birds in the flocks now feeding in the harbour. Young geese stay with their parents throughout the first winter and are marked slightly differently to the adults (more of this at a later date). This enables “age counts” to be undertaken each winter by a dedicated band of recorders throughout our land (well throughout the range of the DBBG). On the basis of what I have seen so far this autumn the geese have clearly had another poor breeding season with very few juveniles present. I will report back with some figures later in the winter but at the moment things don’t look good. Luckily they are long-lived birds so many have still returned to spend the winter with us. Overall peak numbers, though, will undoubtedly be less than last winter as annual mortality is estimated at about fifteen percent and there are certainly fewer juveniles than that around.

The seawall along the east side of Broadmarsh, near the slipway, provides a good vantage point for much of the northeastern quarter of Langstone Harbour and is especially good for counting grebes at this time of year. With additions from a count made in another part of the harbour a bit later I saw a total of 99 Great Crested Grebes this morning, plus a group of seven Black-necked Grebes. Red-breasted Mergansers were quite numerous, with 68, and a single Goldeneye was also present. I have often regarded the latter species as an indicator of local climate change. Throughout the 1990s I would have expected double-figure counts of this species by this stage in the autumn but milder autumns in the current decade has led to them arriving back increasingly later and in ever smaller numbers as they stay further north and east and inland.

There were lots of birds at Farlington, as usual. The best was a female Marsh Harrier quartering the reedbed during the early afternoon giving quite fantastic views. She was also present yesterday afternoon, and may be the same bird which roosted on the reserve last Saturday. At one stage, while watching her, a group of three Swallows flew through, which for November is quite notable and really made the day; it really was summer meets winter as the Swallows flew over a lake full of hundreds of honking Brent Geese. There were also lots of roosting waders here including a nice group of 11 Avocets (which started to arrive to winter last week) and almost 400 Black-tailed Godwits. Redshank (580) made up the bulk of the rest of the numbers, but there were also some Grey Plover and Dunlin and a single Greenshank and Ruff. Common Snipe were gathered on the cut reed areas in some numbers – I could see 65 – but I couldn’t find a Jack Snipe today. But, in traditional “and here’s one I prepared earlier” style, the video below was taken on 08 October in the same area. It shows two things. Firstly, how camouflaged these birds are against their chosen habitat. Secondly, their strange feeding movements – slow-motion spring-in-your-step bobbing! Comments welcome from anyone who knows why they do this (but no comments about the shakiness of the video please)!

The high spring tide had covered all but the top of Little Binness Island (the island of salt marsh to the south of the lake seawall) which made for a good concentration of birds. The majority were Dunlin, all of about 6000 of them, vying for space with everything else which included Grey Plovers, Shelducks, Oystercatchers and a bunch of 21 Little Egrets and 6 Grey Herons. This must be the most important high tide bird roost within Langstone Harbour that isn’t part of a nature reserve!

Since it has rained recently (although not much) many of the ducks have shifted their distribution across the reserve as they find new places to feed and roost on and near water. The stream was the poor relation to the deeps today, the latter now alive with ducks especially Wigeon (about 250 now grazing around the edges, mostly on our mown areas – see earlier post Wigeon-tastic). We still need a lot more rain to fill the deeps and other water bodies, as unlike the stream and lake which are fed by springs and drainage water from further north and have a large catchment area, virtually all other water bodies on Farlington are reliant on direct rain and run-off from the fields to fill them up. The scrape – that half-hidden pool in the middle of the reserve - is still virtually bird-less, whereas normally this too would be full of Wigeon and other wildfowl by now.

Just to convince you that I do still look at small birds in bushes, I saw two male Bullfinches in the education area north of the A27, and quite a few Reed Buntings which seem especially numerous on the reserve at the moment. A party of nine Lesser Redpolls very almost landed on top of some bushes along the eastern seawall but thought better of it. Rain stopped play later in the afternoon and I returned home and back to work...

Falcon assortment

2009-10-11T21:39:00.020+01:00

Sunday, 11 October 2009

In late September I managed to take a few digiscoped pictures of a male Peregrine that was regularly appearing at Farlington Marshes:

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They are only record shots (taken on 23 September), but they serve to illustrate a couple of things about the bird. Firstly, and the reason my attention was initially drawn to it, was that it had a swollen left foot that was clearly quite painful to the bird. When I saw it almost lying down on one of the anthills in the fields I suspected something was wrong and unfortunately I was proved correct when it stood up and revealed its lameness. The other interesting aspect of the bird is its age and plumage. It is clearly a first-summer moulting to second winter (i.e. c.15 months post-fledging) as indicated by the contrast in old and worn brown (juvenile) feathers with new and fresh blue-grey (adult-type) feathers on the upper-parts and tail. The underparts are also a mixture of two different ages of feathers. Note that the cere is yellow – juveniles have blue-grey ceres until a few months old. This became important when I came to identify the same individual from images taken by photographer David Norton on 27 September:

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On a casual look this looks very like a juvenile would from below, but the yellow cere is the clincher for an older bird. Thanks to David for two great shots. You can see some of his other images at http://www.dnphotography.com/

Another day, and another falcon. This time it’s not a Peregrine, but I’m not sure what it is! Taken on 09 September it is large juvenile falcon for sure, with long legs, and sleek body. It had a coloured (perhaps inscribed) ring on its left leg. If you have any ideas please do let me know. Apologies for the dodgey-scoped images!

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Woodpecker and Teals

2009-10-04T19:37:00.014+01:00

Sunday, 04 October 2009

After yesterday's change in the weather and the merest of drizzlings of rain today felt more autumnal at Farlington Marshes. The Bushes area held a light scattering of Blackcaps, a couple of Chiffchaffs and a House Sparrow, the latter a real scarcity on the reserve these days. A Lesser Whitethroat showed nicely, perhaps the last one of these I will see this year. I then came across a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling from one of the patches of mature hawthorns. It showed brilliantly as it thumped it's way around a few of the trunks. I took some digiscoped pictures and videos and they didn't turn out too bad considering I was looking into the sun:
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It was finding plenty of food too, as I could see it's long tongue extending out from it's bill and licking up all sorts of unidentified creepy crawlies and grubs from under the bits of bark it was flaking off.

The high tide roost of birds on the main Lake held the usual species. The best were the 13 Greenshanks tucked up at the back amongst the Redshanks. It was while scanning through these and noting the colour ring combinations of the six marked birds that I noticed a group of 17 Bearded Tits on the muddy edge at the base of the reedbed. I am presuming that they were eating fallen reed seed, as by this time I think they would have already undergone their twice-yearly change of digestive system, allowing them to eat invertebrates in the summer and reed seeds in the winter. It certainly looked like they were eating things rather than taking up liquid. It's possible that they were searching for tiny stones to ingest, which they collect in their winter gut (which develops hard plates) to help grind up the reed seeds that they eat at this season. If only they had been a bit closer I might be wiser...

The waders on the lake also included 470 Grey Plovers, 27 Knot and five Bar-tailed Godwits, the latter all golden and buffy-coloured juveniles. The 735 Black-tailed Godwits clearly included some new arrivals, as a group of 25 came over the marsh and circled the area for some time before eventually dropping onto the lake to join the rest. Some of the earlier birds had arrived from the west, almost certainly from Portsmouth Harbour, where they would have been flooded out from roost sites their by the very high spring tide. This is a regular movement by this species (Curlew also share the same flight lines and roosting behaviour) and a great example of the inter-relationships of feeding and roosting sites within the eastern Solent harbour. It highlights the importance of Langstone Harbour for roosting waders that feed in Portsmouth Harbour. Sadly it also indicates an acute lack of suitable high tide roost sites around the shores of Portsmouth Harbour these days as development has swallowed nearly all of them up.

Numbers of Dunlin are now increasing and over 300 were on the lake. These will now mostly be of the wintering population, the ones which breed in northern Scandinavia and western Russia, and a different race to the birds earlier in the autumn. Many of today's birds were noticeably longer-billed than those present during the last set of spring tides a fortnight ago. This is one of the features of this race, although there is some overlap on the biometrics and it all gets a bit complicated when dimorphism is considered...

Numbers of Pintails are also increasing, albeit more slowly, and today a total of 53 were asleep on the lake. This is such a great place for close views of this species and, in the autumn at least, unrivaled anywhere else in Hampshire. As I left the lake to continue an anti-clockwise circuit of the sea wall the regular Kingfisher perched nicely on the posts opposite the seating area, and the last of the fourteen Little Egrets now on the lake flew in to join the roost.

Small birds on the fields included twenty of so Skylarks and 50 Meadow Pipits, counted as they were variously put up by one of the resident Kestrels. Two Stonechats on the scrub at the southern tip of the reserve were the only ones I saw today. There was also a Wheatear and a Rock Pipit (my second "Rockit" of the day). Little Binness Island was completely under water and so the 1790 Oystercatchers were all roosting on Baker's Island where there was also 43 Ringed Plovers and a similar number of Dunlin. One of the feeding flocks of gulls offshore held four Common Terns, and there was a scattering of Sandwich Terns across the harbour. At least 150 Dark-bellied Brent Geese flew about a bit later (there were 222 in the harbour yesterday, a huge increase from earlier in the week).

The Deeps was hiding at least five Grey Herons and 15 Little Egrets but nothing else of note. From further north along the eastern seawall I could see the two Black-necked Grebes diving between the northern edges of Baker's and South Binness Islands.

Just before I left I took some pictures of some of the Teal feeding on the stream in front of the information building. These are always great value, and so close too. The drakes are coming out of eclipse plumage and are now showing their colours. See here:

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And, finally, I sneaked in another quick look at the main Lake which revealed a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper, perhaps another camio appearance by one elusive bird from September!

Grebes and a great view!

2009-09-30T21:21:00.004+01:00

Wednesday, 30 September 2009

This evening I visited Southmoor shore and Budds Farm pools. The pools held the usual selection of wildfowl including 24 Teal, 11 Shoveler and 3 Gadwall, plus a singing Cetti’s Warbler. Most of my time was spent scanning the harbour from the top of Southmoor Hill which gives a great view across the area. The light was fantastic, it was calm and unseasonably warm, and I could see for miles! With the tide just rising after the low water period conditions were perfect to search for diving waterfowl. A total of 85 Great Crested Grebes were scattered across most areas of the harbour, but with concentrations in the area between Southmoor and Hayling Oysterbeds. Two Black-necked Grebes and two Red-breasted Mergansers were also in this area. Also of interest to me was the presence of 450 Wigeon and 10 Pintail feeding along the edge of the channel that connects Russell’s Lake with Langstone Channel north of Baker’s and South Binness Islands (i.e. the channel midway between Farlington Marshes and Hayling Oysterbeds). This is relatively unusual for these species to be feeding in that area at low tide in the autumn (usually preferring Mallard Sands area south of Farlington Marshes).

Little Egrets were flying past in increasing numbers as dusk approached as they headed for their night roost at Langstone Mill Pond just to the northeast. I counted 60 but probably missed some as I would expect many more to be feeding in Langstone Harbour at low tide at the moment.

Having made a search for an online map of Langstone Harbour showing names of the islands and shoreline locations, as mentioned above, I am disappointed that I couldn’t find one in the time available. Sorry about that! Oh well, something else for me to do during the coming winter…

I would like to point out that Southmoor Hill is in the process of having a facelift. Some greatly needed improvement work is currently ongoing. Already the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, working with a group of students from Highbury College, has installed a couple of benches and undertaken some vegetation control and removal. Currently some old broken steps up from the shoreline to the top of the “hill” on the west side are being replaced / reinstalled by the Probation Service Community Payback Scheme. The BTCV group are due to return to Southmoor Hill to install information boards and complete further habitat management work. It’s already looking much better and more inviting for people to spend their time their.

Wigeon - tastic

2009-09-29T22:00:00.020+01:00

Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Today I helped with the Tuesday team of Farlington volunteers to cut vegetation at The Deeps. Mostly grass, to be precise. The long, now parched, grass and flowering stems are always in need of an annual cut at the Deeps to make the grassy areas more attractive and suitable for Wigeon to graze. Wigeon prefer short grass on which to graze. At the Deeps we expanded work done last week (and last month) and ended up with a nice large area which, given some rain, will have a flush of nice short green grass by the end of the autumn. A few other areas, and some stray bramble clumps, were also whittled away. It's important to keep any bramble growth on the main fields in check as they would soon begin to fragment the open character of the marsh while at the same time site lines for the birds would be lost. The twelve volunteers who turned up, including myself, got quite a bit done. I am very sure that, eventually this autumn and winter, the birds will be making use of the areas we have prepared for them.

Web link: Volunteering on Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust Reserves

One species in particular caught our eye while having lunch - Clouded Yellow butterflies. There were a couple of them feeding on the Hawkbit flowers (see previous post) but they were very active and rarely staying still for long. They are certainly profiting from the very dry and warm conditions at the moment. Other species may not be. Unfortunately both the Deeps and the Scrape are close to drying up of water completely. Even the ditch feeding the Deeps is almost dry. This is not so good news for some of the invertebrate species that live in them and even some of the vertebrates will be having a hard time. Six Little Egrets were gorging themselves on the easy (concentrated) pickings in the last of the patches of water this morning.

The drought has concentrated all the reserves' wildfowl on the lake and stream. This evening I counted 357 Teal, 36 Shoveler and 38 Gadwall here. There were also some Mallards, Pintail and Wigeon. The latter are now visiting these areas in large numbers during the early morning to drink and bathe. Today I counted 350 before they flew off into the main harbour where they are currently feeding on marine algae and grasses. Pintails are always a feature of the lake (and adjacent harbour mudflats) in the autumn. I have counted up to 45 recently. A couple of "stock" images are below (they were taken by me, only last year!) - Wigeon on left, Pintail on right.
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Yellow flowers

2009-09-28T23:34:00.011+01:00

Monday, 28 September 2009

At this time of year the flowering plants on Farlington Marshes are dominated by those which have YELLOW flowers. I’m not entirely sure why yellow is the colour of September-flowering plants, maybe someone can tell me and I can report back… Anyway, here are a few images I have taken over the last few days which gives an indication of the range that you can see.

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From left to right:

(top row) Bristly Ox-tongue, Lesser Hawkbit, Rough Hawkbit

(bottom row) Common Ragwort, Hoary Ragwort, Golden Samphire

Late-flowering plants provide a valuable source of nectar for autumn-flying insects including butterflies and hoverflies.

Yellow wagtails and a little stint

2009-09-27T20:43:00.013+01:00

Thursday, 24 September 2009
High tide 15.31 (4.4m) Low tide 08.42 (1.3m)
F2-3 NW breeze, warm, sunny (but cloudier whenever my camera made an appearance)

I was late in getting out in the field today and it soon looked like it had cost me a good morning for visible bird migration (vis-migging for any birders reading this) as even at eleven o’clock there were Meadow Pipits moving overhead when I arrived at Farlington Marshes. Never mind, it’s not like I haven’t seen it all before….

This was a perfect autumn day in terms of light and visibility. And the sickly-sweet aroma of decaying blackberries everywhere on the reserve was almost overriding the sensual headache of the noisy A27. Well, not quite! Insects were very visible today, notably dragonflies, with loads of Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers making the most of the sunny conditions.

A very slow stroll around the bushes area, mostly to photograph plants, revealed a few migrants. Top billing goes to the male Redstart, but there was also at least one Lesser Whitethroat and three Common Whitethroats plus the usual Blackcaps. The sound of calling Yellow Wagtails near the cattle had me trying out my digiscoping luck. I have always found photographing wagtails to be endlessly difficult and today’s results were little better than previously. The best of my efforts are here:

As the cattle moved close to some bushes, and away from the open area, the wagtails departed over the fields. I thought there were six of them feeding. Eleven flew off!

Kestrels were very active this afternoon and at least three hunted over the reserve. The same number of Common Buzzards, all in one group, drifted over high westwards. Later in the afternoon a trickle of Swallows, 42 in total, belted through north-eastwards; a further hint of missed opportunities this morning.

Chiffchaffs were scattered in the usual “migrant hotspots” including three together in a hawthorn bush at the junction of the farmtrack and east sea wall path. A variety of chats were also new in (obvious increase since yesterday) with nine Wheatears, three Whinchats and three Stonechats. One of the Whinchats posed nicely on a bramble bush in the point field allowing me to take its picture:

Earlier I had discovered a concentration of newly-emerged Painted Lady butterflies – at least four or five feeding on Creeping Thistle and Fleabane in the northeast “slip field” (images below). It was here that I had a close encounter with a very young Pheasant chick which ran over the track I was walking along. Only a day or two old its high-pitched contact calls to its mother (just a few metres away) was the stuff for a Disney cartoon soundtrack (Tweety comes to mind!). Pheasants only started breeding on the reserve a few years ago and less than a decade ago they were a very scarce bird indeed, only just about annual.

Another species of migrant butterfly, a Clouded Yellow, was along the north-east seawall. I have seen this species most days recently so I think they are temporarily resident on the reserve, although random in appearance and location.

I walked around the seawall at high tide and decided to count the Great-crested Grebes: a total of 47 were split between two main areas (Chalkdock 36 and Russell’s Lake 11). There will be others in the harbour though. The only reliable way of getting THE total would be to count birds at a dusk roost gathering – a low-rising tide off Southmoor shore used to be the favoured place. Other notable birds on the harbour water today were few, although 16 Dark-bellied Brent Geese were together, albeit rather distantly visible, off the west side of Hayling Island.

The lake held the usual roost gatherings of waders but it had been disturbed (presumably by a passing raptor) before I reached it so small waders were all but lacking. The Spotted Redshank was lurking with the Redshanks again, and there were 29 Greenshanks together towards the back of the lake. I had previously seen eight of them circling the harbour to the south and, as I left the lake, ten got up and did likewise. I suspect these will depart the harbour tonight. The weather (and date) is typical and perfect for their departure and their incessant calling added to the feeling of imminent migration.

The stream held a juvenile Little Stint (also present yesterday) but time was not on my side to take good pictures so I took some bad ones instead (it's with a Lapwing in the left image):

PS If someone can tell me what the hoverfly is that I inadvertently "caught on camera" in one of the Painted Lady images I would be very appreciative (and impressed!).

Focus on Oystercatchers and godwits

2009-09-11T21:37:00.008+01:00

Friday, 11 September 2009

High tide 16.08 (4.2m) Low tide 09.14 (1.5m)

F5 NE breeze, cool, sunny, a typical autumn day…

The weather has turned cooler and distinctly autumnal for the last three days with an increasing north-easterly breeze. The area of high pressure causing this air flow has yet to reach Scandinavia so the hoped-for migrants (including rarities) from the east have yet to start arriving in southern Britain, never mind Hampshire! Farlington is clearly the place to be regardless of the bird forecast so I dutifully spent a good few hours wandering around from mid-morning.

The bushes area held the expected selection of commoner silvia warblers including a couple each of Lesser Whitethroat and Common Whitethroat amongst the Blackcaps, plus two Chiffchaffs. A Sparrowhawk put a flock of 20 Meadow Pipits up from the ground beside the main lake as well as three Common Snipe. Like yesterday a small passage of swallows and martins was taking place overhead so I positoned myself along the main path through the bushes area to get a good view across the reserve. Groups of House Martins were arriving from the west and stopping very briefly to drink in the fresh water along the stream before continuing eastwards. Smaller numbers of Swallows and a few Sand Martins were also mixed in with them. This passage continued for about an hour but soon died away and thereafter a thin trickle of mostly Swallows was noted throughout the rest of the day.

Small birds, especially migrants, often gather to feed in the same areas in the more sheltered parts of the reserve to feed when it’s windy. Today was no exception and a collection of such birds, probably all newly arrived, was to be found in the field edge in the lea of the north-east seawall. A single Redstart was probably the best, followed by three Whinchats. There was also a Garden Warbler, a Common Whitethroat and two each of Lesser Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler.

It was now almost afternoon so I toured the seawall in my usual clockwise pattern. The Deeps provided no new birds at all, although the family of Oystercatchers that I had seen there previously were feeding on the parched grassland looking for invertebrates to eat. The family comprised two adults and a juvenile. As is typical for this species the juvenile, althogh fully fledged, was still heavily reliant on the parents for food. Locally raised young birds learn foraging and feeding skills from their elders. The parents were typically attentive, and while I was watching it was the male that was being shadowed by the learner. I could still hear the high-pitched chick-like contact / begging calls given by it. Finding invertebrates in the grass or top soil at this time of year has possibly been made more difficult by the continuing dry conditions. Finding worms in the harbour mud would probably be much easier and is what many young Oystercatchers do. They do also feed on shellfish, mostly cockles and mussels (rather than oysters) but the skills required to break into the hard shells to extract the animal inside is one learned slowly. Below is a short video clip of the juvenile feeding with one of the adults at Farlington:

The dry weather (we have barely had any rain since July) has resulted in the Deeps being less than its namesake. It is currently a very shallow pool that has mostly dried up. The Little Grebes on it have only just about enough depth to dive into. Mostly they “snorkel” in search of food – head down into the water peering into the murky shallows in much the same position as the two juvenile Shelducks use to feed (although they are sifting the water for much smaller animals). Today two Little Egrets are also wading about with one seen to take a small fish (probably a stickleback).

The main Langstone Harbour islands, Baker’s and South Binness, have a Peregrine each, including the dark adult male that I have noted recently.

The two juvenile Ruff, first seen on 6th, are still on the lake, along with two Avocets, 14 Greenshanks, six Knot and 130 Grey Plovers amongst the usual species.Todays total of 442 Black-tailed Godwits was the highest I have seen on the reserve this year so far and included 17 juveniles. There were also at least 31 different colour-ringed birds in the flock including a bird that was marked as a chick in Iceland in 1999 during one of the first annual summer trips to that country by representatives of the Farlington Ringing Group. You can learn more about this long-running scheme, which is international in organisation and participation, and now called Operation Godwit, from the following video by Jim Wilson:

In short, each bird caught is marked with a unique combination of coloured rings which then enable anyone, with a good view and through optics, to record it where ever it goes. Many of the birds have long and fascinating life histories which have contributed to building a useful database of re-sightings. We now know much more about this species then when the scheme started in 1991, everything from population size, migration routes and survival strategies, to wintering distribution and longevity.

Volunteering and birding have a divorce!

2009-09-08T21:16:00.001+01:00

Tuesday, 08 September 2009

High tide 14.17 (4.6m) Low tide 19.40 (1.0m)

F3 Southerly breeze, very warm, a typical June day…

It’s always enjoyable being able to do some worthwhile conservation work around Langstone Harbour and today proved to be no exception. A small team of volunteers, including myself, plus Jamie Marsh (Solent Reserves Officer, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust) worked at West Hayling for several hours. Our task was to clear the lagoon islands of as much taller vegetation as possible. Traditionally this has been done in the early spring (in preparation for summer visiting nesting terns) but this year I wanted some of the vegetation to be cleared now in order to provide a viable alternative site for roosting waders on the reserve during the highest of spring tides. And so it was, with the loan of the local RSPB’s boat, we set float… There is a lot of annual vegetation to clear this year and the amount of material was impressive to say the least. We will be continuing our mission on a future date, so watch this space (and better still, tell me if you see any waders roosting on the cleared areas this winter – species and numbers please).

Meanwhile, back at Farlington I receive a report of a Marsh Sandpiper on the main lake! These are mega rarities and I think there have only been three previous accepted records for Farlington, and the last of those I missed. There were (after a swift phone call) other people looking for it, and doubtless if it was still present would be relocated before I got back with the other volunteers to Farlington. Well not that I had been there earlier, but that’s not the point. And now to the point: despite several hours of searching for it from late afternoon I didn’t see the aforementioned rarity. A search by others, including Andy J of Hayling who I joined for some time, also drew a blank. Well not quite, as the main lake held two juvenile female Ruff, a Spotted Redshank, four Common Snipe and a Common Sandpiper, as well as a few Greenshank and a Curlew Sandpiper which I didn’t see but Andy did. We had actually completed a circuit of the reserve which had also yielded two Avocets on the Deeps and an adult Osprey eating a fish on the southern tip of Baker’s Island in the harbour. There were also over 100 Common Terns fishing in the middle of the harbour, albeit rather distantly.

Later, during the early evening, the stream was seen to be crammed with Black-tailed Godwits and a few Greenshank before the tide dropped and they all flew away, helped on their way by a lingering Sparrowhawkk whicvh seemed to be omnipresent this evening. Seven Whinchats were fly-catching from the tops of the reed and up to 100 Swallows gathered in preparation to roost. A group of seven Yellow Wagtails flew over and a Kingfisher whizzed past. A bit later, after another look at the main lake (still hoping!) the last of the evenings Wheatears appeared on the seawall making a total of at least seven.

Wader fest, interrupted

2009-09-07T21:32:00.001+01:00

Monday, 07 September 2009
High tide 13.46 (4.6m) Low tide 19.09 (0.9m)
Overcast, light SW breeze, warm

Now Farlington is at it’s best for getting unforgettable views of large numbers of waders gathered, in a multitude of different plumages, during the autumn. The gathering on the main lake is really quite a spectacle and must be seen! September is arguably the best month for this. I visited the reserve this afternoon to correspond to the period of high tide so that I could enjoy this very same thing. I wasn’t disappointed. The lake held an impressive 508 Grey Plovers, 19 Knot, 125 Dunlin and 370 Black-tailed Godwits along with many hundreds of Redshank. Scarcer waders included a Spotted Redshank, two Avocets, a Common Sandpiper, a Common Snipe and four Greenshanks. Being overcast, and without too much heat haze, I managed to take some passable video clips of some of the roost later which can be seen here (each clip shows Grey Plover, Knot, and Dunlin):

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I say later as my attention was taken up by a Kingfisher which paraded itself on the old rotten posts at the front of the lake just down from the official viewpoint. At the same time, and vying for my attention, was a male Marsh Harrier that had appeared over the middle of the reserve and was now low over the reedbed and disappearing fast. I persisted with Kingfisher as this was a good opportunity for taking pictures of it. I seem to remember suggesting to the birder I was with at the time that Marsh Harrier was no match, in points at least, for Kingfisher in the “want to see” stakes. Well see for yourself – pics below (of just the Kingfisher of course…. I’m very biased in these things and wish for everyone else to be too! No, the reality was that the flying harrier, a smart male, was never going to be an easy subject for digiscoping).

I would say that although the overcast conditions had helped me with getting record video clips of the waders, it wasn’t doing many favours for showing up the real vivid colours of the Kingfisher. This really does have to be seen to be believed: electric blues, metatllic greens and bright oranges are merely words to describe what IS the most colourful resident British bird.

Buff-breasted Reeves

2009-09-06T22:00:00.004+01:00

Sunday, 06 September 2009

High tide 13.14 (4.6m) Low Tide 18.40 (0.9m)

Light to moderate W to SW breeze, sunny a.m. cloudier p.m., warm

Although I arrived too late for the early-morning rush of migrants it quickly became apparent that there were few new migrants in the bushes area but I still found myself wandering aimlessly around. It sometimes becomes a habit for the “patchworker” to look into empty bushes just for the satisfaction (though that’s not quite the right word) that you haven’t missed anything. Which is quite ridiculous at Farlington considering the amount of scrub could hide a herd of elephants and it would be perfectly possible not to see them! In fact, I have known one or two wardens that have struggled to find the herd of cattle…

Birds were, erm, everywhere of course it’s just that there weren’t many migrants. There was a thin scattering of the usual Blackcaps, and a meagre three each of Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat and Chiffchaff. Two Cetti’s Warblers tried to sing to each other and a trickle of Meadow Pipits headed northwest overhead. A group of 50 Swallows belted through low southwest over the main fields. A group of 40 finches circled around, comprising 3:2 Greenfiches and Goldfinches. One of the bomb-crater ponds held a very showy Sedge Warbler clambering around the rushes therein, while three more accompanied Blackcaps out from the reedbed further on. My first Pied Wagtail in four visits to the reserve this week flew over – perhaps the first migrant one of the autumn.

Bearded Tits could be heard calling in the reedbed and, as I walked past the information building, a smart adult male Kestrel landed on the fence behind but flew off before I could get my camera attached to the telescope. Never mind. Moving onwards a little group of chats – two each of Wheatear and Whinchat - perched on the fenceline along the track caught my attention. I was soon engrossing myself in a little bit of digiscoping with mixed results:

The north-east “slip field” held another Chiffchaff and a Great-spotted Woodpecker, the latter disturbed from the bottom of a dead-looking Hawthorn tree. The best sighting in this area was of a juvenile Kestrel chasing a Kingfisher, although I use the word “best” loosely as I would be the first to admit that I didn’t want the falcon to catch the fisher. And so it was: Kingfisher 1, Kestrel 0. Chalkdock held a total of 22 Great-crested Grebes and 5 Wigeon (my first in that area this autumn) floating about on the water, and the head of a Harbour Seal bobbing around a little further out. I’m sure it’s body was under the surface somewhere it’s just that I couldn’t see it – now look, I’m only reporting what I actually SAW! A Common Buzzard was being mobbed by a party of three Kestrels just to the north of the harbour.

The tide was already quite high and the saltmarsh areas of North Binness Island were attracting the usual Grey Herons and Little Egrets. As I walked southwards along the seawall path I flushed a Common Sandpiper from the shoreline which flipped across the near creek onto North Binness Island but later ziz-zagged ahead of me twice to be flushed again, and then again from along the seawall. Common Sandpipers are the Wheatears of the wader world in that they tend to fly ahead of you and don’t learn fast enough that it’s better to back-track behind you to avoid being flushed again rather than landing just in front! But I’m very sure that, if you ask a Common Sandppier his or her perspective on things you might get a rather different opinion!

Scanning across the saltmarsh areas, including both North Binness and Long Islands, I counted ten Grey Herons and 19 Little Egrets actively hunting for food as the tide reached its peak and flooded all the various creeks and leeks. I didn’t stop very long to watch but I have noticed before that they tend to catch a combination of invertenrates and fish, the former being flooded out from their hiding places in the saltmarsh and the latter brought in by the tide. Although doubtless the herons might take anything that moves, including voles.

Another 14 Great-crested Grebes were on the water to the south of North Binness Island. And then I looked out to Baker’s Island and was greeted with the sight of a couple of sail boarders that had landed there. Great! Now let’s be clear here: these islands are part of a nature reserve and have huge NO LANDING signs on. They are also the major high tide roost for many of the waders and wildfowl that live in Langstone Harbour. As it was the hundreds of Curlew that otherwise would have been on Baker’s Island had been displaced to Long Island and North Binness Island. The only notable gathering of birds left on Baker’s Island was of Cormorants – 31 stood on the near shore - but virtually none of the other expected birds were to be seen in that area. Even the usual Osprey was flushed by the sail boarders and was seen heading southwards to Hayling Island. Three Shelduck, two Dark-bellied Brent Geese and several Little Egrets later the sail boarders went on their flushing way but only to be replaced by a kayaker paddling himself very close to the islands…

Looking inside the seawall at Farlington again the Deeps now invited my attention. Stood around one of the last remaining areas of water on this side of the reserve was a group of 13 Little Egrets and 5 Grey Herons, with another of the latter flying over. Various small birds flicking about here included Linnets, Meadow Pipits, Yellow Wagtails and Wheatears. Feeding on the muddy areas at the front of the deeps were three Dunlin, four Black-tailed Godwits, while asleep was a Shelduck and three Oystercatchers.

Moving on to the southern point of Farlington I relocated the Osprey on one of the shorter posts in the harbour off the distant west side of Hayling Island. There were single Turnstone and Dunlin on the shingle here but the tide was too high for anything else. Rounding the corner of the seawall I could see that Little Binness Island was brimming with Oystercatchers. There were at least 900 of them, occasionally flying around when one of the many boats in the harbour today came a bit too close. As I approached the main lake I counted another 480 Oystercatchers there, so getting on towards 1500 on or around the reserve today. Others had remained uncounted with the Curlew on Long Island earlier.

Four Whinchats were in their usual place on the fenceline near the lake but I didn’t stop long to look at them. There were waders on the lake to look at, and my lunch to eat! The lake held a good roost of birds, including 271 Grey Plovers and 18 Knot. Scarcer species were two Common Sandpipers, a Common Snipe, a Spotted Redshank, up to 15 Greenshank and, the best by far, two Ruff. The latter were small juvenile females, also called Reeves, one asleep amongst the 471 Redshank, and the other feeding with a group of Dunlin. Both were very brightly coloured buff almost all over, and typically scaly-looking on the back. Various other odds and ends flew over the lake, including a group of 17 Yellow Wagtails and two Sand Martins.

Another brief look thorugh the bushes as I left revealed two Redstarts calling to each other but remaining frustratingly difficult to see. I did evntually manage to see one of them well but all too briefly. I wonder what else I had missed in this area earlier?!

Selected bird records and counts:

Dark-bellied Brent Goose 2

Shelduck 5

Wigeon 13

Great-crested Grebe 36

Osprey 1

Common Buzzard 1

Kestrel 5

Sparrowhawk 1

Redstart 2

Wheatear 5

Whinchat 6

Swallow 50+

Sand Martin 2

Yellow Wagtail 20+

Greenshank 15+

Common Sandpiper 3

Lesser Whitethroat 3

Oystercacther 1500+

Grey Plover 271

Common Snipe 1

Knot 18

Cormorant 31+

Redshank 471

Spotted Redshank 1

Greenshank 15+

Great-spotted Woodpecker 1

Kingfisher 1

Swallows and Small Coppers (plus a sickly phalarope)

2009-09-04T23:00:00.009+01:00

Tuesday, 01 September 2009
High tide 10.28 (4.1m) Low tide 15.47 (1.8m)
Moderate/fresh SW breeze, showers, warm

I arrived at Farlington rather late in the morning and spent the next three hours or so wandering around “the bushes” – the area between the car park, stream and information building – in an attempt to relax and see some birds. Initially sunny, it turned showery later, which probably meant that the bird activity lasted longer into the morning than would otherwise have been the case. I had decided to leave walking around the seawall until later especially as the main lake was still full up with water and there would be few birds on it. Anyway, the first birds I saw were Great Tits, followed by a Redstart…and then another. One was calling, perhaps agitated at the other’s one’s presence (or mine!). Sylvia warblers (the “sylvia” referring to the genus aka as scrub warblers) were calling away around me – the first of six Lesser Whitethroats showed nicely, along with several Blackcaps. Next was a Spotted Flycatcher which whizzed past but stopped not too far away on the next available perch. Nice. As is typical of early September there were Robins in almost every bush (or so it seemed) with much “ticking” calls to go with them. Not much happening around the Old Pond but two Wheatears were on the fence line to the south posing nicely. More sylvia warblers included the first of only five Common Whitethroats and the ear-piercing song of a Cetti’s Warbler was soon amply heard! A Reed Warbler crept around in a blackthorn bush and another couple of Lesser Whitethroats chased around a half-dead hawthorn.

The birds assembled on the main stream then caught my eye and I stopped to have a better look at them. Top billing goes to the 37 Greenshank stood together, some with colour rings of which the light made reading difficult but I tried. Ducks then demanded attention as there was a count record to beat… that for Gadwall on the reserve. I could see 42 which was just shy of last weeks count (but read on for an update). A distant Osprey had diverted my attention briefly and I toyed with the idea of delaying the Gadwall count but I persisted (!). No sooner had I completed the count of Gadwall the Osprey, a fresh-plumaged juvenile, came over the marsh from the east and followed a westerly flight path right over the stream and right over my head. Now where are those photographers when you need them? This blog could have been so much more visually appealing! These really are superb birds, and they are being seen with ever increasing frequency on passage in Langstone Harbour as the British population increases.

The birds on the stream had been temporarily spooked by the Osprey but soon re-settled. This gave me a chance to count the 310 Black-tailed Godwits and 10 Wigeon and search through the Teal for any with blue (or even blue-ish) wings. Without success this time I continued onwards through the bushes area and enjoyed the butterflies. I had already seen Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown and Small Heath but my list suddenly lengthened as both Common Blue and Small Copper appeared in a sheltered area to the lea of some bramble. There were several of each here, and I managed to photograph one of the Small Coppers:

The skies were now threatening the first rain shower of the day so I skirted some of the scrub that would provide refuge when it became damp. Putting one of several small moths up from the longer grass I stopped to take a closer look at one of the beasties from under foot (almost literally). The moth turned out to be a Rush Veneer (thanks to Andy J for the heads up on my ID, as I’m not too good at identifying moths) - see picture left. Usefully Andy provided the following note to his ID: “Rush Veneer Nomophila noctuella, [is} a migrant that is relatively plentiful at the moment, and easily disturbed during the day. They have a characteristic long and narrow look, with wings held flat.” Maybe I won’t forget this one now.

While on hands and knees I was more aware of the constant noise of Long-winged Conehead bush-crickets – which sound like someone winding up an old-fashioned wrist watch all day – and while trying to find one my nose almost hit a large spider called Edith…. no actually its called Pisaura mirabilis. This beastie had built a nursery web for it’s tiny offspring around a bramble twig and entrapped numerous other bits of vegetation including a thistle seed complete with its plumes. My attempts at an arty-type picture can be seen to the left but won’t win any prizes.

It soon started raining so I retreated to what’s known locally as the “double ponds thicket” for a while. The resident Blue Tits and Great Tits were entertaining enough and had attracted a Lesser Whitethroat but my hoped for Pied Flycatcher, a species which often favours feeding from the inside of tree canopies, was nowhere to be seen. The sun soon reappeared and the birds put on a late morning fit of activity. Two Reed Buntings seemed to accompany the flock of Blackcaps on the edge of the thicket, while three Collared Doves, a scarce bird on the reserve, flew around it. Yet more Small Copper butterflies were disturbed from a patch of Fleabane flowering next to the path. Fleabane (picture right) is a common plant on the grassland areas at Farlington and is a great source of nectar for all sorts of insects at this time of year. It can be humming with them in calm conditions. Unfortunately today was now becoming increasingly windier so I moved swiftly on to the reserve’s information building. En-route I met a fellow birder who told me about a Whinchat which I never saw. In fact this was to remain a species that I wouldn’t see today, remarkable considering I would have once considered this species to be a relatively common migrant on the reserve in September. A look on the stream behind the building revealed five Little Egrets, curiously all juveniles, feeding in the shallows, along with a juvenile Black-tailed Godwit and a juvenile Common Sandpiper. Thinking about it the Teal and the Moorhen there were also juveniles…

One more Gadwall on the stream in front of the building didn’t quite break the record books, and neither did the 19 Canada Geese which is just as well really. Just east of the building, and part way along the track, there was a group of about 20 Swallows resting on the cattle crush fence being photographed by another birder. He told me that the Grey Phalarope was still present on the Deeps but was last seen looking poorly and resting on the seaward side of the seawall. This bird had arrived yesterday and, although clearly a bit “iffy” and with some damage to its left side, was actively feeding and flying around. Today it was less than happy which was to become all too obvious to me later.

The Swallows entertained me for a while and I managed a few digiscoped photos:

Further along the track a group of Blackcaps fed on blackberries and Greenfinch became the commonest species of bird with at least twenty exploding out of the bushes either side of me. More Speckled Wood butterflies were joined by a Comma and a Large White. The second Kestrel of the day sat on the branches of a dead hawthorn tree.

I ate lunch overlooking Chalkdock Lake, an area of the harbour between Farlington and Broadmarsh. The tide was falling fast and a group of nine Common Terns were fishing here. Two Sand Martins passed southwards (adding to ones seen earlier) and a single Knot stood amongst the flock of Grey Plover on the mudflats. Meanwhile a group of eight Gadwalls flew north from the harbour towards the pools at Budds Farm sewage works. After lunch a walk down the east seawall revealed little in the way of birds apart from three Wheatears on a fenceline, so I didn’t hang around too long here. The Grey Phalarope was back feeding on the water of the Deeps, vaguely in association with a group of juvenile Black-tailed Godwits. As noted by others before me it really didn’t look happy and at one time sat on the bare mud seemingly very uncomfortably. It was a bit difficult to be sure what was wrong with its left side and I couldn’t confirm whether the dark patch on it was oil or missing feathers around the leg area.

A lone Dark-bellied Brent Goose was feeding on the grass and the group of Canada Geese from earlier had moved in. A single Common Sandpiper was the only other wader on the pool. Walking around with another local birder the wind now made looking for birds on the open fields difficult. A female Sparrowhawk flushed a flock of about 2500 Starlings over the point field. It wasn’t too long before we had found our way to the lake, a full circuit in less time than it takes not to find a rarity! While counting the Mallards here, of which there were 62, a smart juvenile Whimbrel dropped in to bath. There was little else on the lake though so we didn’t hand around too long. The stream was grilled yet again for ducks. Two counts later and I had counted a magnificent 51 Gadwall! A record!! Brilliant!!!

Later in the evening after doing other things I checked out the Swallow and Yellow Wagtail roost which held 200 and 18 birds respectively. Both of these species roost overnight in the main reedbed. The reedbed at Farlington is a traditional roost site for these two species which have been using it for decades. The Swallows were gathering on the bare ground alongside the main stream but also sometimes on the shorter grassy areas and anthills in between feeding forays. Some were picking off insects from the anthills but the light was too poor by this stage to be sure of their prey although I suspect it might well have included Yellow Meadow Ants. These are common on the reserve and the owners of the aforementioned anthills (obviously).

Selected bird records and counts:
Dark-bellied Brent Goose 1
Wigeon 10
Gadwall 51
Osprey 1
Kestrel 2
Sparrowhawk 1
Black-tailed Godwit 310
Whimbrel 1
Greenshank 37
Common Sandpiper 2
Grey Phalarope 1
Swallow 200
Sand Martin 7
Yellow Wagtail 18
Spotted Flycatcher 1
Redstart 2
Wheatear 8
Whinchat 1
Lesser Whitethroat 6
Starling 2500