Saturday 6th September 2025.
My first Little Stint of the year (with a Black-tailed Godwit). There were actually two birds present, a juvenile and an adult, that spent the day on the Stream area, which was east of the main Lake.
It was a breezy day with a south-easterly blowing across the south coast, but it was sunny and bright and today was going to be full of birds. Not only down Farlington Marshes where we spent the day, but also over my house early in the morning when I was checking the Moth Box. We met up with some of the ‘Lazee Birders’ on the reserve and enjoyed each other's company watching some entertaining species, which included three new species for both my Hampshire and UK Year list.
My Moth Box:
A nice selection of moths present this morning that included from left to right: Dark Sword-grass, Flounced Rustic, Four-spotted Footman and a Clancy's Rustic.
The numbers of moths over this week have certainly dropped, but 30 moths of 15 species wasn't too bad I suppose. There was an element of quality among them, especially when a Four-spotted Footman drops in of which I quickly potted before it flew off. I had a small influx last month, but this was the first one since then. There was just the one Golden Twin-spot moth, but even that didn't linger and a Flounced Rustic, Clancy’s Rustic and a Dark Sword-grass are your typical Autumn moths, but most welcome. It was just the usual fare among the micro moths this morning.
Above, this male Four-spotted Footman moth was a nice surprise. Below, a Yellow-barred Brindle.
The Moths recorded this morning included the following:
Finally, there was a lot of visible migration going on overhead while I was checking the Moth Box as I recorded up to 5 separate Yellow Wagtails, three Tree Pipits (2 and a single bird) and a Curlew! The Wagtails and Pipits were all heard only, but the Curlew was seen flying high up calling and then headed off south. This was a Garden ‘tick’ for me, which now puts my Garden list on 72 species recorded here. A Chiffchaff was calling in nearby gardens and then eventually seen flying around in the big tree behind my garden. Finally, a Fox was ‘barking’ somewhere north of my garden. Probably a female that needed a bit of ‘nookie’?
Andy’s Moth Box, Cowplain Marsh:
A more difficult Square-spot Rustic to identify.
There were just 16 moths of 10 species in and around his Moth Box this morning and just the ordinary fare one expects to see at this time of year that included up to 3 Square-spot Rustics. A bit disappointing considering the many moths he had last Saturday.
A Lesser Yellow Underwing moth.
The Moths recorded in Andy’s Garden this morning included the following:
While checking the Moths, a Chiffchaff and Nuthatch were heard to call in neighbouring gardens and a Swallow was seen flying high overhead. His Pond is looking nice and clear as Andy, Geoff and I had a coffee overlooking the Pond.
Matt & Emma’s Moth Box, Fareham:
A rare immigrant moth, the Vestal.
The guys put out their Moth Box for the first time this week last night. Among their 19 moths of 11 species, they had a moth I have been hoping for this Autumn, a Vestal. It was going to be a dry night and this morning, they were rewarded with the following moths:
Farlington Marshes & Langstone Harbour:
A mixture of both waders and wildfowl along with a Cormorant and Grey Heron on the Lake at Farlington Marshes.
Today, I managed to get over the 200 species seen in Hampshire as I picked up three more ‘year-ticks’ on Farlington Marshes. Both Little Stint and a Ruff were seen on the Stream area and an eclipsed drake Garganey was on the Lake, of which I am grateful to Jason Crook for finding it among the many ducks present.
Above, Ringed Plovers coming onto the reserve from Langstone Harbour as did these Mallard, below.
A Greenshank and a Black-headed Gull out on the mudflats when we arrived.
We firstly made our way to the Lake first as the rising tide was bringing in both the waders and wildfowl onto the reserve and especially the Lake area. On our way there, a quick look in the harbour, we picked out at least three Greenshank feeding on the exposed mudflats. Arriving at the Viewing Platform, already we could see large numbers of both Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank on the edge of the Lake, with smaller numbers of Redshank among them. At the back of the Lake, up to 18 Greenshanks were present, most resting on the edge of the water and I found both a juvenile Little Ringed Plover and a Dunlin just behind the main flock of waders.
Above, a Grey Heron flying towards the Lake and below, a Sand Martin flying next to a flock of Black-tailed Godwits.
Above, a male Common Blue butterfly. These were abundant by the Bushes area.
There were good numbers of wildfowl too and of course, they were all in eclipse plumage for this time of year. Species present included Mallard, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, good numbers of Wigeon and up to 5 Pintail and 6 Tufted Ducks. At least two Little Grebes were seen and the drake eclipsed Garganey was picked out by Jason, as mentioned, feeding over on the south-east side of the lake, mostly on its own, but always remained distant.
Above, another photo of the male Common Blue butterfly on a Fleabane plant. Below, one of the 6 Cattle Egrets in flight over the reserve.
One of the many Yellow Wagtails present today by the Cattle.
While checking out the birdlife on the Lake, Yellow Wagtails were flying over, though the vast majority were heard only, but later in the morning, we eventually got some great views of the birds among the Cattle. Flocks of both Sand Martin and Swallow were passing through in good numbers throughout the day and we even came across our first September Swifts flying over the Bushes area. Andy found them first, with up to two birds seen together flying high over the reserve several times.
Above, three Yellow Wagtails following the Cattle on the Stream area and below, a flock of Greenshank with a Black-tailed Godwit flying over the Lake.
Above, this big juvenile female Peregrine spooked the resting waders during late morning.
We got some info from Graeme Loader that the two Little Stints (and adult and juvenile) were both showing well along the Stream and best viewed by the bench. We had to be careful though, as a Wasps nest was close by, but no-one got stung. From the Bench, we obtained good views of the Stints (my first of the year) feeding on the Stream area and though I got some shaky film footage, we still got reasonable views of the birds. Other notable waders along here included a Common Sandpiper and thankfully for me, a Ruff, which briefly flew out of the cover of the dead reeds and landed back in the dead reeds and out of view (my third ‘year-tick’ of the day)! There had been up to four birds here and were seen earlier this morning. However, we did ‘dip’ on the Wood Sandpiper seen here this afternoon, but a Green Sandpiper made up for that as we watched it fly off east high over the Stream.
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Above, one of the 6 Cattle Egrets flying over the reserve and below, Yellow Wagtails on the sea wall.
While watching the waders, along came the Peregrines; a male bird and a dark juvenile female bird that attacked the waders by stooping at great speed towards them. Though I do not think they were successful at first, they might have been lucky while we were not looking? Still, a superb sight to watch. Not only did they spook all the waders, but the three Glossy Ibis that had been present for the last few days here, were also spooked and showed well for us as they circled over the nearby fields and then landed back into the dead reeds. I say ‘dead reeds’; for last year, the whole place flooded due to the poor maintenance of the Sluice gates and literally destroyed most of the superb reedbeds here! The only greenery growing within the dead reeds were clumps of Sea Club-rush as Geoff explained.
Above, the Glossy Ibis along with many of the waders got spooked by a pair of Peregrines hunting over the reserve.
Behind us, up to 6 Cattle Egrets were resting by the Cattle and when the Cattle slowly made their way towards us, we counted at least up to 50+ Yellow Wagtails among them and some came close enough to get some reasonable photos. There was some ‘chacking’ going on within the brambles next to us as a Lesser Whitethroat, my first decent view of one this year, flew out and landed on another larger bramble and showed very well.
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Above, a Cattle Egret flying over the Info Centre. Below, Geoff checking out the Stream area for the elusive Wood Sandpiper.
Above, the small duck in the top left hand corner was my awful effort to get a photo of the Garganey! below, the juvenile female Peregrine over the reserve.
Above, another Yellow Wagtail on the Stream and below, Hemp Agrimony growing among Fleabane plants. It certainly attracted the butterflies.
Above, a female Common Blue butterfly on a Fleabane plant and also a Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus). Below, Black-tailed Godwits come into land on the Stream area.
Above, I disturbed a moth flying low over the grass, which turned out to be the immigrant micro moth, Rush Veneer. Below, one of the Little Stints feeding with a Black-tailed Godwit.
Happy with our sightings here, we tried out luck again back by the Viewing Platform on the Lake. By now, Jason Crook had joined us and he picked out the Garganey for us and so, three species that Andy had seen earlier this year were well and truly on my year list. Happy days. A Kingfisher flew in and landed down below us before flying back whence it came from. Amazingly, Jason was watching what he thought was a Starling at first through his binoculars flying over the fields in the distance; but then realised it was most likely a Quail! But it could not be relocated and consequently, a great bird for the reserve went begging.
Apologies for the shaky film footage, but it was breezy when filming the Little Stint on the Stream today.
We had another look at the Stream area and also the small pool in front of the Info Centre, but nothing new to report; but what a great day. Incidentally, there were a good number of Common Blue butterflies around the Bushes area along with Meadow Browns and I even found a Rush Veneer moth, which I potted and identified. Yes, a great day with my mates and a good chat with several Lazees too.
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