Another quiet Southsea sea-watch!

Sunday 27th April 2025.

Myself, Andy and Matt kind of enjoying a rather quiet sea-watch.

Crazy as it may seem, I went to bed at midnight last night and was up at 5am for a 6 till 9am sea-watch with Matt Parkes. Yesterday's Pomarine Skua’s passing through the Solent had my mouth watering and I was hoping for a repeat performance this morning. I have to admit, I did not look at the wind direction or the state of the weather for today and was a bit disappointed to find it was a cloudless sky, no wind and a dead flat sea at 5.50am this morning. I knew then it was going to be a very slow three hours, but hey, not only Matt turned up this morning, but also Andy Fisher!

Dawn at the seafront with Gulls and a few Sandwich Terns on the foreshore.

Andy even amazed himself getting up so early for this sea-watch, but although he had no ‘year-ticks’ to put a smile on his face and his Hampshire year list, it was an enjoyable three hours nonetheless. The following birds were seen this morning:

• Sandwich Terns: There were at least 8 birds fishing throughout the morning and several pairs were much further out heading either east or west.

• Mediterranean Gull: Only a handful were seen flying over the Solent and one particular individual flew past us at close range over the beach.

• Oystercatcher: A flock of 5 birds flew west and another flock of 13 went eastbound and just one single bird also went east.

• Shag: An adult bird flew low west heading towards Southsea Castle.

Above, a line of 14 Brent Geese heading east and below, 9 Shelduck going in the same direction.

Above and below, the Sandwich Terns were always active along the shoreline.

Above, an adult Shag heading towards Southsea Castle. Below, a flock of 13 Whimbrel heading east.

• Whimbrel: A big flock of 13 birds flew east together and a single bird also flew east. A pair of birds also headed west.

• Brent Geese: A flock of 14 birds headed east in a straight line and a single bird also headed east. Surely the last of them for the Spring?

• Shelduck: A flock of 9 birds flew high east over the Solent.

• Black Swan: Yet another sighting of the Black Swan flying distantly south-east. Was this the same bird as last week?

• Peregrine: Andy saw a male bird flying out to sea as we watched it flying towards the posts on the horizon about a mile out. It or another bird was seen again flying over the sea and landed on the distant post. 

Sandwich Tern calling loudly as it flew past.