Short-eared Owls added to year list.

Saturday 20th November 2021.

One of the Short-eared Owls being mobbed by a Crow over the fields at Thorney Island late afternoon. 

Our goal today was for the Short-eared Owls on Thorney Island and these gorgeous birds dutifully obliged. We made two trips to Thorney Island today, once in the morning and later in the afternoon, but it was a grey day with the occasional bit of drizzle in the afternoon, but it stayed relatively mild and hardly a breath of wind. High tide was around midday and with still, calm water within the harbours, all looked very good for a nice list of sightings. 

Above, Andy sporting his superb Trotsky hat, pointing out a Giant Hogweed plant, below, along the footpath. 

We arrived at Thorney Island for the first time around 9am and quickly proceeded to walk down the footpath to the west side harbour wall. On entering the footpath, a Water Rail was heard to call, but there was no sighting of the bird and so Andy’s wait to add this species to his year list goes on! There were quite a few thrushes around, especially by the small copse, which held Blackbirds, Song Thrush and several Redwing and I was pretty sure I heard a Fieldfare, but no sighting of the bird. A scan south over the reedbeds produced a Meadow Pipit and a male Stonechat perched on the overhead wire. A small flock of Goldfinches flew over and the Cetti’s Warbler was singing deep within the brambles.

A Greenshank flying over Emsworth Harbour.

A rather poor photo of the female Marsh Harrier and a Kestrel looking on over the Little Deeps. 

On reaching the harbour wall, we checked out the harbour and came across at least two fishing Sandwich Terns, which were now in Winter plumage. A flock of Oystercatchers and a couple of Little Egrets were on the foreshore while nearby, a small flock of Wigeon swam with Brent Geese and a Mute Swan. A scan over the harbour revealed a few Little Grebes on the water, but nothing else of note.

The Little Deeps in the overcast conditions.

One of the fishing Sandwich Terns in the harbour.

The Little Deeps held good numbers of Wigeon, Mallard and Tufted Duck, while close in, at least three Little Grebes swam on the water. A few Cetti’s Warblers made their presence known with their explosive calls, but, surprisingly, no Bearded Tits were present. A flock of 7 Greenshank flew over in a tight flock earlier along the footpath while another lone bird was seen flying south over the harbour. A female Marsh Harrier came into view as she sailed low over the reedbed to the east and eventually disappeared into the reeds. Nearby, a Common Buzzard was seen perched on a telegraph pole with a male Kestrel resting on the adjacent wire.

Golden Plovers coming into rest on Thorney from the harbour.

 As we made our way down the harbour wall path, a real surprise was a Spotted Redshank that flew up from the adjacent canal and then flew over the path and south down onto the Scrape behind the field. A real bonus. There were Reed Buntings seen with a female bird feeding on the reedmace in front of us with another couple of birds flying out of the reedbed. Constantly checking the fields for an early Owl to show, we were to be disappointed, but there was always something to look at here. The Great Deeps was packed with wildfowl, but last week's drake Goldeneye was, as expected, not to be present. The Spotshank was seen again, this time flying in from the harbour and landing on the edge of the pool, some distance away.

A pair of Greenshank coming into roost on the small pool beside the Great Deeps with Shelduck and Teal for company.

While checking the harbour again, a female Peregrine flew high over the harbour heading east, scattering all the waders and wildfowl on the islands; our fourth raptor of the day. A Great Crested Grebe swam close to us on the Great Pool, busy preening itself and again, no sign of any Kingfishers seen this morning. Normally, a good stronghold for this species, we were surprised we never added this species to our day list. Large flocks of waders were making their way off the harbour and onto the island including a flock of around 100+ Golden Plover that headed eastbound, as well as smaller numbers of Grey Plover, Redshank, Dunlin and Curlew. The walk back to the car was very quiet with nothing really to get excited about and after grabbing a bit of lunch in Emsworth, we then made our way to the Oyster Beds over on Hayling Island.

The Great Crested Grebe on the Great Deeps.

This Grey Heron was in one of the fields close to the main footpath. 

The tide was still rising within Langstone Harbour as we made our way to the Oyster Beds and on reaching the furthest point, I set up my scope and checked out the ever increasing number of waders coming into roost. Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Knot, Oystercatcher, Curlew and Turnstone all came into roost, producing yet another spectacular spectacle of which I took some film footage. On the pools, there were three Red-breasted Mergansers, including two females and one drake and a solitary Little Grebe. Out in the harbour, I counted at least 30 Mergansers on the water along with the same number of Great Crested Grebes, but I failed to find any Black-necked Grebes that had been seen today. However, I did find Andy’s first Goldeneye of the year, with three very distant birds swimming off Broadmarsh, while using my scope. Two Rock Pipits flew over our heads as we made our way back to the car.

A pair of Mergansers on the Oyster Beds.

Grey Plover and Dunlin over the harbour. 

After the Oyster Beds, a nice cup of coffee from nearby Greggs, we made our way back to Thorney Island again, but as it was only 1.30pm, I decided to park up on the east side, with permission from the Marina, then took a stroll past the houses and watched from the raised area overlooking the Landing Lights fields. From here, good numbers of both waders and wildfowl were roosting including good numbers of Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew. A pair of Stonechats were showing well on the brambles out in the fields and a Chiffchaff was calling and then seen flitting about in the brambles in front of us. Not just birds were noted here, but a Fox was seen searching for a potential meal in the field to the north, which upset and put up the local Canada Geese and a Roe Deer was feeding in the field south of the pool by the Army Checkpoint. 

Grey Plover coming into settle on the Oyster Beds.

It was around 2.45pm that I decided to pack up our gear and drive down to Eames Farm to hopefully view the Owls and on arrival, we met up with Andy’s nephew, Richard. He was very happy to tell us that up to three birds were actually showing and it didn’t take long for us to watch our first Short-eared Owls of the year. Though a bit distant, the birds performed superbly to all that were watching including a lot of the ‘Lazee Birder’ gang that were present on both sides of the fields! I watched one of the Owls catch a vole and when it dropped onto the ground to devour its meal, we noticed that the local Magpie’s were flying down to them, hopefully to steal the meal off the birds. Whether they were successful or not, who knows? 

Two of the Short-eared Owls hunting over near the Great Deeps. 

Again, the dark, overcast sky did not help photography, especially with my Bridge Camera with flight shots, so apologies for the quality of my photos of the Owls. It was the best of them that were reasonably worth putting on my blog. Nevertheless, we had a good 20 minutes or so enjoying the birds tassel with one another or hunting low over the fields looking for their favourite food. I was listening to one chap next to us saying that the Landing Lights field was flooded this year, hence the lack of voles on this side of the road; while the field where they were hunting now was a bit higher than the Landing Lights field and the voles were far more abundant. It certainly got cold as the afternoon wore on and so I said to Andy it was time to go. It is always pleasure to watch the Owls here and to see three in the air together is something special. I hope they are here for some time, putting on a great show for us birders.

Resting waders and wildfowl on the Oyster Beds.

Interesting news this afternoon came from birding pal Geoff Farwell, who found a Hooded Crow at Cheriton today while he was out birding! An amazing record for Hampshire.