Great Northern Diver at Eastney.

Tuesday 20th January 2026.

This juvenile Great Northern Diver was a nice surprise, swimming in Lock Lake at Eastney this morning.

A bright pleasant start to the day with a lot of sunshine, but a breezy southerly wind with temperatures fairly mild for this time of year. The dead Fox I found yesterday in Pembroke Road was being collected by a lady and her team, but when they went to collect the Fox last night, it had gone; of which I can only assume the Council took it away or one of the local residents? 

There was a selection of birds to be seen during my first shift in Pembroke Road and after my shift, I took a drive over to Southsea Castle to see if there was anything of note there and then I finished my little bit of birding down at the harbour entrance at Eastney.

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:

I notched up 13 bird species during my first shift there this morning and again, like yesterday, it was the usual fare here that did included several flocks of Brent Geese heading east and one, possibly two, Cormorants were seen, though one did look a little small and could of been a Shag and was heading towards Portsmouth Harbour? Again, the usual passerines were seen and heard, but no Greenfinch this morning.

Southsea Castle and the Solent:

A solitary Oystercatcher was present on the rocks below Southsea Castle, but nothing else of note was seen here this morning.

To be honest, if it wasn't for a lone Oystercatcher seen on the rocks in front of the Castle, it would have been a dead loss here. Though the rocks look good to protect the seafront from coastal erosion, I cannot help thinking that I preferred the old concrete slope that used to be here. Searching for the Purple Sandpipers here is much harder than it was and this was my second trip here without seeing the birds. However, numbers have dropped considerably here with only a handful being seen, which begs the question, do they really benefit from the new rocks here? The Oystercatcher looked quite at home, prising Limpets off the rocks with its huge orange bill with ease.

Above, the view of the rocks looking west from the new promenade. Below, the Oystercatcher on the rocks.

Above, the new beach looking towards South Parade Pier. Below, this poor Carrion Crow was sat on the sea wall. Just look at the state of its feet!

There was nothing whatsoever on the Solent except a few Herring and Black-headed Gulls and so I turned my attention to the Castle where a female Black Redstart was seen a couple of days ago by my mate Andy Fisher. Nope. Not a sausage! Absolutely void of birdlife and so I walked back to the car disappointed. I decided to round the morning off with a trip to the harbour entrance and try my luck here.

Harbour entrance, Eastney:

The immature Great Northern Diver in Lock Lake.

Again, the harbour entrance was literally empty of birds, save a few Black-headed Gulls by the car park and so I took a drive to the small car park near the Hayling Ferry Terminal. A good scan in both Lock Lake (I recently heard someone calling this area Eastney Lake, but on Google Maps, it's Lock Lake?) and the northern half of Langstone Harbour. At first, despite a rising tide, I couldn't find anything of note whatsoever and I nearly gave up and then a second sweep through the binoculars, an immature Great Northern Diver came into view having passed the spit and swam south into Lock Lake. In the sunshine, it looked stunning and so I quickly got my camera pointing at it and took several half decent photos of this lovely bird. I had only seen my first of the year last Saturday from Hayling Oysterbeds, but this bird today was much closer than Saturday's bird. I was well pleased with this sighting and so got back into the car as I was getting a bit cold. From the car, a flock of Brent Geese flew past and a Sandwich Tern could be seen flying east over the harbour, to round off my morning’s birding.   

The immature Great Northern Diver about to sink beneath the waves.