It's been quite a quiet month in reality. And with not doing the whole year list malarkey this year, there's not as much need to go and twitch things I've already seen before. I have been doing lots of garden birding, of course, which is great, but there's nothing quite like a really early morning multi-hour commute in freezing conditions to twitch a rarity. I imagine I will end up doing another big year of sorts next year, but we'll see how things pan out. Onto today.
It's the holidays, so we all as a family decided to go for a nice walk along the beach at Southsea with hot drinks from a cafe. Like old times, before my older brother was at college for what seems like 24/7. We parked by the canoe lake, planning to walk past the pier to the castle and get drinks at the D-Day Memorial Museum cafe. There's always something or other to look at around there, and there was a possibility of Purple Sandpipers, so of course, I was fully decked out with bins, camera, and scope. The tide was forecast to be pretty far out, though, so the likelihood of the purple sands was low, but all the same, still a possibility.
The canoe lake was full of Mute Swans and various duck species, and there was a large splattering of juv. gulls about.
We made it to the beach, and immediately, a shape on the sea right by the pier caught my eye. I put the scope down and checked through the bins. Very cool- a Great Northern Diver. I wasn't expecting to see this here, so was of course very happy to see it.
It stayed around for a bit before drifting past the pier out of sight. I caught up with the others and walked briskly past the pier to see it from the other side.
As soon as we passed the pier, I checked whether it was visible, and was surprised to see that it, and another, were both close in to shore. Dad and I walked down to the waterline, and although they were constantly diving, we got incredible scope views, and I managed some decent photos.
We stayed watching the two for as long as possible before walking along the beach to catch up with the others. A non-birding walk, with non-birders, in a location with lots of birds, always involves quite a lot of catching up...
Quite a few gull species were moving through, including a few Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, a Great Black-backed Gull and one Common Gull. I think a Common pictured here, ID'd from other similarly dodgy pics but def not sure.
We made it to Southsea Castle, so I started scanning the rocks, but nothing in terms of sandpipers was visible. The tide was much further out than when I had seen the sandpipers last, so I kind of just focused on what I actually could see, which came in the form of a
Great Crested Grebe feeding along the shoreline.
After scanning around once more, I thought it would be best to join the others in the quest for mochas (or hot chocolates for some). We acquired our drinks and made it back to the seawall. By now, it was getting somewhat dark, so viewing things was not so easy. The view over towards IOW was beautiful, with orange hues glowing in the sky above the huge island.
As we walked past the castle again, a Cormorant was ever so briefly above the water before diving down, and much further out, what I think was a Shag was just visible.
As we walked along, I inevitably fell behind again, this time checking out what a small dot of dark on the sea in the distance was. A buoy, of course. It's always later in the day that you feel overly reflective. Here I was, walking along the beach with a cold, blustery wind in my face, thinking for a millionth time about last year's expeditions. It does feel weird not having a year list, as I always have done for the two and a half years of birding I've done. But in a way, it is quite relaxing just enjoying what comes, and now and again going on a panicked twitch for a lifer. As the sun slowly slipped down out of view, I continued on along the beach, with the gap to the others ever increasing. I was really enjoying myself, however. The sea air, the relaxing sound of waves lapping along the shoreline, and the dark, cold air seemlessly moving about. Being outdoors just hits different sometimes. And, to top it all off, a Great Northern Diver put in one last performance, flying past far, far out in the seemingly endless sea, before disappearing out of sight.
Well, I enjoyed that. A lot. Taking things slowly, one bird at a time. It's been quite a while since I've actually been out and about birding, so it was a really nice breath of fresh air to be out and about again.
Dad and I are due for a birding trip this month at some point, so we'll see what happens with that. It's always so much fun; he really enjoys the trips, however much (or more precisely, little) he knows about birds. That is a bit harsh, I suppose. He does try to learn how to ID things:) Last year in Feb we saw Long-eared Owls at the North Wall at Pagham together (accurately described as the worst-kept secret ever). That's quite a story, but unfortunately pre-blog days. Long story short, we knew the owls were probably in a two-meter area between two ivy bushes, searched for an hour or so, looking at that one spot with no sign. It was freezing cold, we had breakfast booked for after the birding, and time was up so I started walking back towards the car. Dad went for an absolutely incredible, even legendary "one last look" and picked out one of the owls in amongst the dense reeds and bushes. A very fond memory. Another good story was after seeing the Cranes at Ouse Washes involving his favourite bird... Alas, there is no time to explain, but you can read all about it here- In Flight: Aves Observata: Ouse Washes RSPB- 01/11/25 Well, with all this reminiscing, my time is up and I need to get to bed, so good night all:)
Robin(top) and Great Tit, Bullfinch, Red Kite, and Buzzard
