I thought I'd have a great day being on the south coast and was spoilt for choice as to where to go. I settled on Farlington Marsh which should provide me with waders and sea ducks and hopefully Short-eared Owl. When I arrived though, the tide was so far out that the bay was dry and devoid of bird life, the marsh itself was buzzing with dog walkers so I decided to forget the idea and head to Titchfield Haven. Before I left I had a quick scan of the channel with the telescope and picked out Curlew, Oystercatcher and a nice pair of Red-breasted Mergansers.
I arrived a Titchfield, the area quite busy. I parked up and scanned the Solent first but nothing on the sea as it was so rough, the wind was very blustery and blew my tripod over whilst I was getting my telescope, this has bent the arm which controls the head :o(
There were a few Herring Gull and Cormorant out on a spit and some Oystercatchers very close in affording a great opportunity to get some shots.
Oystercatcher
I then locked up the car and turned to head over to Titchfield Haven only to find it was closed, today was not turning out to be my day.....
As time was running out I decided to head to Stanwick Lakes as it was on the way back to our friends. I arrived on site and low and behold it too was shut, it was still accessible by foot though so I just parked up on the feeder road.
The woods are extremely wet and boggy making it difficult to walk round, certain paths are closed off and others completely flooded. The woods were alive with Blue Tit and Great Tit but no Coal. I saw a couple of Goldfinch which I don't really recall seeing much in woodland. I got some great views of a pair of Lesser Redpoll feeding.
Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
I also saw plenty of Woodpigeon, a Goldcrest, 2 Redwing, a Song Thrush and a Treecreeper but this was it for the smaller birds. I continued round passed the Study Centre lake on the way back to the car. I had a quick scan, present were Mallard, Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, a Little Grebe tucked up in the reeds and then my first Kingfisher of the year.
Mallard
Gadwall
128. Kingfisher
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