Farlington marshes and hayling island

Curlew and grey plover

Greenshank

Dark-bellied brent goose

Had a nice stroll around farlington marshes today. I estimated i saw about 300 shelduck which is a very impressive number! Also was a rock pipit showing next to meadow pipit. Had lots of large wader flocks of;grey plover, ringed plover, dunlin, turnstone and bar tailed godwhit. There were a very large number of dark-bellied brent geese present, and i picked out 1 pale-bellied brent goose. These subspecies are rare down here in hampshire so it was nice to see one. There was a slav grebe disant of the shore. Also: goldeneye, pintail and goosander. What really struck me was the very small number of juveniles present, maybe the breeding season for them was very bad.
Went to hayling island also and saw a few birds including a greenshank.

Winter in patch

Had a good week in patch, with several firsts for the area- Goosander and barn owl.

Saw 2 water rail being surprisingly showy but still shy. Skylarks were also seen.

Wren

One of the two overwintering water rail

Water rail

Patch's first bran owl

Feral muscovy duck

Palla's warbler

Went for a twitch and saw the very flighty rare warbler. The bird was at Eversley gravel pit right on the berks/hants border. It was associating with LTT and goldcrests. It had originally been mistaken for a yellow-browed warbler before re-identification. The bird was very flighty and when i saw it, it was on the Hampshire side.
Also was a barn owl, goosander and reed buntings.

Bickerley common and harbridge

the worst picture of a glossy ibis ever

A bad picture of a bewick swan

Went for glossy ibis at bickerley common hants, and had an easy twitch. But the bird was very distant. Also were hundreds of godwhits and a male brambling. then went on a walk around harbridge with highlights of a great white egret and a stonechat. And on the way back i saw 2 bewick swans. So a very good sunday

Normandy

Had a short stay in Normandy and found a few birds as well as visited WW2 sites.
Highlights-Common scoter
                   Slavonian grebe
                   Red-breasted merganser
                   Northern fulmar
                   Rock pipit
                  Cirl bunting
                  Serin

American cemetery

                 

Summer plumaged black headed gull

Rock pipit

Fulmar

Red-breasted merganser

fem common scoter

slavonian grebe

Cirl bunting