The Ferruginous Duck is back again.

Wednesday 10th December 2025.

After yesterday’s wet and windy weather, today was a much brighter affair with plenty of blue sky and sunshine first thing this morning, though it did become a lot cloudier in the afternoon. It was mild again with temperatures around the 14 degree mark with a south westerly wind. It has been a little quiet in Pembroke Road regarding anything really noteworthy over the past couple of days, but I am still getting double figures in bird species still.

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth: 

Up to 13 species were recorded today from both shifts and probably the best of the sightings were the distant flock of Brent Geese, around a dozen birds, heading east past the harbour wall by Curtain Moat. Governor’s Green held around 40+ Herring Gulls searching for worms on the wet grass again and scores of Wood Pigeons were flying over throughout the day. A Wren narrowly avoided being hit by a car as it flew across the road close to where I stood and quickly sang when it landed in some vegetation.

In Hampshire today:

The drake Ferruginous Duck on Brownwich Pond. Photo by Bob Marchant.

The return of the drake Ferruginous Duck on Brownwich Pond this morning was probably the highlight of today's Hampshire sightings and a fine photo of the bird too (see below). A Great Northern Diver and a female Velvet Scoter was again off Weston Shore and a good count of 8 Common Sandpipers were wintering at Lower Test  Marshes. Two Great Northern Divers and a Red-throated Diver flew into Chichester Harbour this morning and over at Normandy Marshes, up to 22 Spoonbills were counted and a Spotted Redshank was present too.

Further afield, the Lesser Crested Tern was still in the Exe Estuary near Powderham this time and in South Wales, the Scops Owl was still present at Killay, Glamorgan.

Several Marmalade Hoverflies were around the Ivy in my garden this afternoon.

In my garden during the early afternoon, during a spell of bright sunshine, I was checking out the Hoverflies still on the wing here and included several Marmalade Hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) and at least one female Migrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae). The crazy thing is, it should be near freezing around this time of year, but the insects keep coming due to the mild weather.

A female Migrant Hoverfly was also sunbathing in my garden.