Pennington - 19th Sept

The weather was hot and sunny. Highlights were Osprey, Mediterranean Gull, Hobby, Little Stint, Golden Plover, Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Water Rail and Clouded Yellow butterfly.

We walked down the north side of Fishtail lagoon seeing the usual Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Skylark and a nice male Blackcap on the way. At the lagoon there were a couple of Wheatear on the shingle bank and several Black-tailed Godwit roosting with Redshank and many Canada Goose. The only other waders were a few Turnstone and Dunlin and one or two Ringed Plover. We walked on to Butts Lagoon seeing a brief view of Kingfisher and Cetti’s Warbler on the way. There were more Dunlin here and we picked out a Little Stint. The Redshank were joined by 5 Greenshank and a Water Rail ran between two areas of reed giving us a brief glimpse of it. Back at Fishtail and Lyz picked out a Bar-tailed Godwit among the Black-tailed and there was also a Knot. As we watched the birds on Fishtail Lagoon many of the waders went up – bird of prey! 5 Buzzard and 1 Osprey were above us. We continued along the sea wall to Keyhaven Lagoon seeing a couple of Clouded Yellow on the way. Keyhaven Lagoon had a lot of waders. Many Grey Plover, quite a few Knot, Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Golden Plover. A Hobby whizzed by and the Osprey flew back over and hunted in the mid distance. We also picked out a first year Mediterranean Gull in with the Black-headed Gulls. As we walked back we saw a Small Copper butterfly. A great morning birding!!!
Simon Curson