Tuesday 26 November 2013

Monday

I started off with a brief but sweet visit to Kingfisher lake ( near Blashford Lakes). Arriving I walked to a small gap in the hedge row and searched through the fence so not the best view, but no luck! While waiting in the surrounding woodland a Nuthatch called, a Treecreeper  was busily hunting, I got a brief view of a Jay, and Chaffinches were calling all around me. In the actual lake there was; plenty of Wigeon, a few Tufted Duck, several Mute Swans, Gadwall, Black-Headed Gulls and Coots. While trudging back to the car park I scanned through a very small gap through the trees, the view was obscured by branches and the fence, but I managed to get a decent but short view of a Fudge Duck, my target bird. It showed quite well roosting with some Tufted Ducks before being scared off by a Black-headed Gull,
Next was a quick stop at Slufters Inclosure ( New Forest ) where I was looking for the previously reported Parrot Crossbills. Sadly it was very quiet here, with not much at all of interest. Not even a single Common Crossbill!
Abandoning the New Forest I headed towards Farlington Marshes, despite being low tide there was a lot on offer. Highlight was  White-Fronted Goose a nice county lifer. There was a lot of common waders about, Dunlin were in high numbers, plenty of Brent Geese, a few Grey Plovers, two ringed Black-Tailed Godwhits, a Spotted Redshank, one Goldeneye was also present.
After, a quick pop down to pathc to see if anything was present, sadly it was quiet except for two Stonechat. All in all a great birding day!
A "good' view onto Kingfisher lake
Brent Goose


The flock of Brent Geese

Black-Tailed Godwhit with Brents

Black-tailed Godwhits with rings. These birds were ringed at this site on the 15th of october this month!

Grey Plover

Pintails


Mudflat with feeding Dunlin


The Spinnaker tower in Portsmouth

Four Shelducks

Stonechat on patch

Chiffchaff on patch last Friday

Lesser Yellowlegs at Lepe CP

I saw a Lesser Yellowlegs last week at Lepe CP, it showed well for about 20 minutes before becoming distant. A lovely bird. Coming from North America, it was obviously a bit lost! here are some bad recordshotts of the bird.
Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Some weird dead fish thing I found on the beach


Turnstone

Dunlin and a Turnstone

Turnstone

Lesser Yellowlegs showing off how it got its name!

Mixed flock of waders