Photos from this spring in Florida

I would just like to show you this set of a Florida-scub Jay must be one of my favourite birds, stunning!!!
Sorry some of them are repeated.

Red berated Woodpecker

Patch

Its been a nice past week on patch.
Highlights for the past week: Dunlin on the 28th ( my 3rd record on patch this year), an 1stW Yellow-legged Gull ( Patch record) on the 29th and four Wigeon on the 1st ( my fourth patch record this year, and four of them! Most I have eve had here)

Also nice; There have been at least 2 Little Egret around ( though probably a few more hiding in the Water Meadows), 3-4 feral Greylag Geese which spend most winters on the patch, a fair few Redwings have been seen. The largest flock was one of 26 on the 1st.

Winter waterfowl and wader numbers on patch are on the up.The  Lapwing  flock peaked on the 28th with 308. Two Tufted Ducks have been present for a couple of days. The Teal  flock has risen to 105 ( peak) on the 1st. 9 Shoveler was the highest on the 28th. There has been 1 Snipe feeding in the open for the last couple of days, though I am sure there are a fair few more! 6 Coot were the most recently on the 28th. A flock of around 20 Starlings have also been present.

Gull wise, apart from the YLG, there have been 2 Lesser-black Backed Gull around. A few Common Gull have been present with the peak of 4 on the 1st.

Little Egret

Little Egret in flight

Jay

All 4 Wigeon on patch! Can you find them all...

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

September and most of October

I started of September with the Semipalmated Sandpiper on the 6th the of September on Keyhaven Lagoon, it showed very well and very close before it was flushed further away. There was also 13 Curlew Sandpipers in the lagoon as well as 2 Sanderlings, a Greenshank, a Little Stint and about 300 Dunlin.  There was also one Black tern around the jetty of Pennington.
The Semipalmated Sandpiper was a stunner and lovely to watch. What a bird!

I visited Pennington once again during September where I saw: 2 Ruffs, Bar-Tailed Godwhit, c.50 Yellow Wagtails, 1 summer Little Gull and an unidentified raptor probably a Hobby.

I dipped for the Semipalmated Sandpiper but i did have a candidate of Black point after the dip which was almost certainly the bird but just a bit to far for positive ID.

I dipped Wryneck twice in September, one at Hengistbury Head and the other at Mill Field LNR.

Most of September and October was slow on the birding front, missing Dusky warbler, Raddes warbler and Semiplamted Sandpiper in one week all in hants! And i also missed the Brown Shrike in September. Dipps aside  there wasn't to much about.


Now onto patch: The main highlights of September were  Osprey and Grasshopper warbler.
The  Osprey flew over on the 24th. The Gropper was on the 28th and stayed for a couple of hours. found by DH. I also had a party of 3 Whinchat by the SF on the 10th. October has been slow also with the only rare bird being a Wigeon (fem) on the 18th.
I will be doing a much more in depth round up of my patch here - http://patchmega.blogspot.co.uk

Curlew Sand ( juv)

Dunlin