Friday 5 August 2016

Pennington Marsh - 29th July and 5th August

I have been suffering from local patch neglect of late and have been tied to my computer either at work or processing a silly number of images from my recent Alaska trip, so on 29th July I paid a short visit to Pennington Marsh walking out past Fishtail Lagoon to the point at Butts Lagoon and then to Keyhaven Lagoon. I only had my digiscoping kit and that, coupled with the heat haze has resulted in some pretty shitty images but it was simply nice to be out and about.

Water levels are generally pretty high but the marsh at the back of Fishtail is looking cracking. Waders are returning and on Fishtail Lagoon there were 125 Black-tailed Godwit. Also here were 30 Dunlin, six Snipe, three Common Sandpiper and six Little Ringed Plover. On the intertidal was a single Sanderling, 350 Dunlin, 30 Turnstone, four Whimbrel, 12 Grey Plover, 10 Common Tern and six Sandwich Tern.

Black-tailed Godwit - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Black-headed Gull (juvenile), apparently they have had a very good breeding season at Keyhaven this year which is good to hear since many years the nests get flooded out during Spring Tides - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Common Gull, my first of the 'winter' - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Eider, an eclipse male off Butts Lagoon - Pennington Marsh

On 4th August I paid another brief visit to Pennington Marshes and walked from the end of Lower Pennington Lane out past Fishtail Lagoon to the seawall, around Butts Lagoon and back past Shoveler Pools. The tide was on the rise and there were fewer birds on the pools with most birds being on the remaining intertidal. Dunlin numbers were put to around 600 while there were at least 50 Turnstone, 20 Grey Plover, three Bar-tailed Godwit, 30 Sandwich Tern and 20 Common Tern. My first Wigeon and Pintail of the 'winter' were on Fishtail Lagoon. On Shoveler Pools there were three Little Ringed Plover, a Green Sandpiper and a Wood Sandpiper. Again, I only had my digiscoping kit so my images are a bit shite.

Wood Sandpiper - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Green Sandpiper - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh

Little Ringed Plover - Shoveler Pools, Pennington Marsh