From Dawn till Dusk birding!

Saturday 1st January 2021.

Dawn over the Solent this morning.

And so a new year begins and today, both Andy and I done our ‘From Dawn till Dusk’ birding and for a change, we only kept to Hampshire. Yes, it was going to be a tall order to beat our record of 92 species in a day, but we gave it our best shot and at one stage, it looked promising, but time got the better of us and we ended up with a reasonable 73 species for the day. Not only was the weather dry (so much for the weather forecast saying it would be raining all day!), but we also came across a good many familiar faces along the way.

The Purple Sandpipers at Southsea Castle roosting in their usual site at Southsea Castle. 

Including this lone individual!

Andy picked me up in his car at 7.45am and while waiting for him to arrive, my first birds of the New Year passed overhead: firstly several Herring Gulls and then a Carrion Crow, though I did hear both a Robin and Blackbird sing nearby, but to add to our year list, they must be sightings. Our first stop was to be Southsea Castle for the Purple Sandpipers and possibly some other goodies we might come across. It took just a few minutes for me to find our first Purple Sandpiper, a single bird all by itself perched high up on the wall as the sea level was quite high. A further 14 more were found on our walk back along the promenade, though all were roosting while the tide was high. Other bird sightings added to our year list included Black-headed Gull, Blackbird, House Sparrow, Great Black-backed Gull, Brent Goose, Oystercatcher, Common Gull, Feral Pigeon and a good sized flock of Mute Swan as we passed Canoe Lake.

Oystercatchers in the southern car park at Eastney.

Our next stop was Eastney and by parking by the harbour entrance, we made our way down to the Ferry Terminal to view Langstone Harbour, which was now at high tide. We quickly picked up a flock of Turnstone on the boats plus Starling, Wood Pigeon, Cormorant, Red-breasted Merganser, Great Crested Grebe and a Guillemot. A pair of Pied Wagtails flew over our heads and landed near our feet! From the southern car park; Robin, Stock Dove, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Meadow Pipit and by the shoreline, a large flock of Sanderling.

Great Crested Grebes swimming in the harbour near the main entrance to Farlington Marshes.  

Farlington Marshes was our next destination and a site where we had the most species seen - 26 species. A pair of Stonechats were by the car park and a pair of Collared Doves and a Dunnock were seen by the entrance to the reserve. Walking through the Bushes area up to the Lake, we notched up the following: Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit, Moorhen, Canada Geese, Pintail, Shelduck, Coot, Redshank, Little Grebe, Mallard, Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Avocet, Grey Heron, Pheasant, Ringed Plover, Curlew, Skylark, Rock Pipit, Wren, Grey Plover, Common Snipe,Kestrel, Little Egret, Dunlin, Mediterranean Gull and Blue Tit. Though we never walked all the way around the reserve, I felt that time was against us and so from the Info Centre, we made our way back to the car park. We did hear Bearded Tit, Grey Wagtail and Cetti’s Warbler, but we could not count them in our year list. Frustrating!

A pair of Teal by the viewing platform.

Lapwing, Shelduck and a Little Egret among the Avocets on Farlington Marshes.

Our first Med Gull of the year being carefully watched by a young Common Gull.

Next stop was Budd’s Farm and the Mound. The weather wasn't that clever, with a southerly wind blowing in off the harbour that didn't help us locate anything of note from the Mound. However, two more ‘year ticks’ were added from the pools by the Water Works area: Tufted Duck and Shoveler. Sadly, no sign of any Pochard, which was surprising. There was a friendly chap there doing a WeBS count, but he could not find anything more for us. 

A female Stonechat on Budd's Mound. 

Gadwall on the pools at Budds's Farm.

We picked up some grub from 'Greggs' on Hayling Island and after we consumed our well deserved nosh, we made our way down to Sandy Point. Parking up in Seafarers Walk, we took the footpath to the beach and harbour entrance. On our way there, we picked up both Great Tit and Chaffinch to our list (phew; sometimes the really common birds are the hardest to get!). On reaching the beach, we set up a scope and was soon joined by both John Cronin and Andy Friend! We picked up our first Razorbill of the year drifting on the outgoing tide into the Solent. Apart from a few Great Crested Grebes flying by and a large flock of Teal giving us a headache on ID, it was pretty quiet here and so Andy and myself took a stroll to the Hayling Sailing Club.

A Grey Heron at Langstone Mill Pond. We were hoping for both Mandarin and Cattle Egret at this site but drew a big blank!

From here, we came across birding pal, Geoff Farwell, who was checking out the harbour. Thoroughly enjoying our chat, we picked up 2 Great Northern Divers, 2 Slavonian Grebes, more Razorbills and Guillemots and finally a large flock of Bar-tailed Godwits. When we walked back to our respective cars, we came across Andy Johnson who kindly showed us where a flock of Sandwich Terns were fishing! Many thanks Andy. We said cheerio to Geoff and hurried off to Warblington for the Cattle Egrets and while driving back through Hayling, we notched up both Rook and Jackdaw to our total.

Around 20 years ago, us three (Andy, myself and Geoff Farwell) used to 'twitch' all over the place and here we are on Sandy Point today.

Wartblington was somewhat disappointing as we hoped to pick up a Woodpecker or some Thrush species, but at least we picked up the Cattle Egrets, with at least 14 present and a further four more flying overhead. The light now at 3.30pm was getting poor and so we hastily finished off our day at Southmoor again. It was low tide in Langstone Harbour and so getting anything interesting out on the water was a non-starter. Instead, we checked out the pools again and though no Pochard was to be seen, I did find our first Buzzard of the year! We eventually called it a day, but as we were packing our stuff away back in the car, I found both Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit to draw a close to the day's birding! OK, 73 species was much lower than our highest ever total, but I was fairly pleased with this, seeing we kept to Hampshire only. I think we will hit the magic 100 species for the year by close of play next Saturday.

Arguably, the worst photo of three Cattle Egrets coming into land over Warblington. The light was bloody awful in my defence! 

If you are reading this, I hope you have a fantastic New Year and thank you again for reading. Joining the ‘Lazee Birders’ Whatsapp site has made me more friends and readers, so I hope to entertain you guys as the year progresses.