More migrants arrived in Hampshire today.

Wednesday 19th March 2025.

Another view of the Governor's green with the Garrison Church in the background.

It was back to Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth, this morning and to be honest, though bright and sunny, it wasn’t too cold this time as I arrived early and so took a walk up to Curtain Moat. Earlier today, while walking the dogs around 6.30am, I heard a ‘drumming’ Great Spotted Woodpecker somewhere within Highland Road Cemetery whilst walking the dogs. As the day wore on, the weather on my afternoon shift got much milder, though the cloud rolled in. 

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:

A view of the Curtain Moat looking south towards the Solent.

I got up to 17 bird species either seen or heard today from Pembroke Road and as mentioned earlier, I took a walk first to Curtain Moat to see if there were any early migrants around. Well, there wasn't, but a Dunnock was heard and good numbers of Starlings were around the Moat walls, with some picking up bits of dried grass to line their nests within the holes around the walls.

This afternoon, with the sun shining brightly, this female Hairy-footed Flower Bee warmed itself up on a south facing wall of a house.

I checked out the Solent thoroughly for around five minutes and a flock of around 30+ Brent Geese were seen distantly flying low over the water heading east. This could be a flock making their way back up the North Sea to their breeding grounds. Incidentally, over 900 Brent Geese flew past Selsey Bill this morning, so there was definitely a bit of a movement going on today. A Meadow Pipit was heard flying over though I never caught a sighting of the bird and a few more were seen throughout the day heading north.

The summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe off Osborne View. Photo by Mark Francis.

The Firecrest was heard calling briefly in the Holm Oaks, but again remained elusive. There were plenty of birds singing now including both Great and Blue Tits and of course, the Robins. In Hampshire today, the first Common Tern of the year in Hampshire was seen off Brownwich and a summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe was seen on the sea from the Osborne View. More migrant birds were seen in Hampshire that included both Sand and House Martins, Little Ringed Plovers and an Osprey was seen flying north over Farlington Marshes and then headed north towards Portsdown Hill.

A Little Owl filmed in Fareham today. Filmed by James Cutting.