Another good soaking and a Leaches off Hill Head.

Friday 23^rd October 2026.

The Bowling Green by Pembroke Road held some puddles that attracted the Gulls later in the afternoon.

Storm Austin came in with a vengeance overnight, with heavy rain and strong winds therefore a restless night i had. The rain didn’t let up early this morning when I took the dogs for their early morning and so I cut it short for I was totally soaked despite wearing wet weather gear! It’s the last day today before the Autumn School break and though the rain is supposed to ease up, strong winds are forecast for this afternoon. Wonderful!!!

Thankfully, there was no rain on my second shift in Old Portsmouth, but the wind was still quite strong and standing still was quite challenging! Sadly, no new bird species seen though plenty of Wood Pigeons and Gulls going overhead.

 

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:

Surprisingly, despite the heavy rain that came in on a breezy north-westerly wind, I still notched up 15 bird species this morning. The Bowling Green held several large puddles and that eventually attracted several Herring and Black-headed Gulls with some drinking water.

There was just the one Pied Wagtail seen this morning and that flew east over Governor’s Green and a Grey Wagtail put in an appearance again, flying westbound over the same location. The Wood Pigeons were again in large numbers on Governor’s Green with at least 50+ seen on the grass and a good many in the Holm Oaks feeding on the Acorns.

Despite the poor weather, I was surprised to see a Greenfinch flying over as it flew off southbound towards Curtain Moat, just before the deluge of rain came in from the west.

The birds seen or heard today included the following:

• Herring Gull
• Black-headed Gull
• Wood Pigeon
• Feral Pigeon
• Starling
• Carrion Crow
• Magpie
• Wren (heard only)
• Robin (heard only)
• Blackbird
• Blue Tit (heard)
• Great Tit (heard)
• Pied Wagtail
• Grey Wagtail
• Greenfinch

 

In Hampshire today:

I wasn’t surprised that there were few sightings around in Hampshire in this poor weather, but I felt that someone was going to be checking the Solent and sure enough, fellow ‘Lazee Birder’ Mark Francis (who else?) was checking the Solent from Hill Head and found a Leaches Petrel flying low west distantly over the sea. He also recorded a Merlin and both Red-throated and a Great Northern Diver during his spell there.

My Hampshire Bird Report 2025 arrived in the post today.