Yellow Wagtail & Fulmar from Southsea Seafront.

 Sunday 13th April 2025.

Immature Herring Gulls on the foreshore in front of my Shelter.

It was back to the Southsea seafront for yet another ‘sea-watch’ and it looked promising with an overcast sky and showers overnight. I arrived at my usual time of 6.30am to 8.30am and almost immediately, I was onto my first Yellow Wagtail of the year. The cloud eventually disappeared leaving behind a very sunny morning and thankfully, there were a few birds of note coming through the Solent that included yet another ‘year-tick’, a Fulmar. About 10 yrs ago, I used to see these quite regularly on a Spring seawatch; but they are hard to come by of late and only seen on a windy day during the Autumn now.

Here is a summary of this morning's sightings on my ‘sea-watch’:

• Yellow Wagtail: Single bird flew in calling and then headed off north high. Similar to last year and many years before, I always seem to get at least one of this species from Southsea. Other than that, they are a regular species on Autumn passage here on the South coast.

• Common Tern: Just the one bird seen flying powerfully westbound. Hopefully, it will not be long before we get the large flocks moving eastbound.

• Sandwich Tern: Always entertaining, at least 10 birds seen this morning that included fishing birds plunging into the sea to catch a small fish. Most were just fishing back and forth though a few distant birds were heading east.

• Mediterranean Gull:  I had two large flocks containing 9 birds each heading some distance out westbound and another 4 birds going west. I could hear several birds which must have been quite high up in the bright sky.

Above, you can just see the two Whimbrel in the top right hand corner in this photo and below, the large flock of Brent Geese headed by a Wigeon of all things heading east.

Above, three photos of the Sandwich Terns. At least these flew a lot closer to the shoreline.

• Whimbrel: Four birds were recorded this morning where the first bird noted was heard high up but I failed to see the bird. Two birds together headed west and another east through the Solent.

• Brent Goose: Three separate flock went through eastbound containing 2,6 and a large flock of 19 birds that contained a Wigeon leading the way!

• Common Scoter: a flock of 6 flew distantly eastbound low over the sea but among them was a much smaller duck but too far out to ascertain its ID. Possibly a Garganey? They have a habit of mixing it with Scoter.

• Shag: Just the one adult through heading low over the water westbound.

• Gannet: an immature bird slowly making its way through the Solent heading east. This was the first immature bird I have seen this year and my third Gannet of the year.

• Linnet: One bird flew in off the sea and headed strongly northbound and two and three birds headed west over the beach.

• Fulmar: As mentioned in the summary above, the bird was heading low over the water westbound and seemed to get a bit of hassle from a couple of Herring Gulls when first seen. It then got free of the birds and sped low over the water and out of view.

All in all, not a bad ‘sea-watch’ during those two hours. After AJ’s Serin sighting earlier this week at Sandy Point, another was found by fellow ‘Lazee’ Mark Francis by the Toilet Block at Hill Head. Sadly, like the Hayling bird, it did not linger for those making their way there, which is so typical of this species. Maybe I might have one next week from the Southsea seafront? At Fishlake Meadows this morning, two Grasshopper Warblers were reported and a Little Tern was seen off the seawall at Farlington Marshes. Birding pals Matt & Emma Parkes were at Pulborough Brooks in West Sussex and saw their first Hobby of the year and good views of the Nightingales . The White-tailed Eagle also showed well.

Above, this brightly coloured liner was making its way out from Portsmouth Harbour and below, there is always some idiot climbing the rocks here despite signs to stay off them.

Back at home, I saw my first Holly Blue butterfly of the year in my garden.

This morning's Serin at Hill Head. Photo by Mark Francis.