A trip to Titchfield Haven with Joe and Peter was on the cards today, and with not much seemingly about, anything interesting would be a great bonus.
After arriving, we decided to go up the east side first, and on the way to the Meadow Hide, we heard a Tawny Owl calling in the trees. With not much visible from the Meadow Hide, other than a Whitethroat and a few Cormorants, we headed on up to the Knights Bank hide, where a while was spent watching the 4 Spoonbill, a few Herons, Little Egrets, and a Kestrel. Two Green Sandpipers flew around in the distance as well.
On the walk over to the west side, a Green Woodpecker was seen, and the Tawny Owl was still calling.
In the Meon Shore Hide, a lot was visible, with plenty of Avocet, Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwits, Redshank, Black-headed Gulls, Common Terns, Shovelers, and Gadwall all immediately obvious, along with a few Teal and the Tufted Ducks.
After having lunch, we decided to head on up to the Pumfrett Hide, and after we sat down, I had a look at the terns that were landed nearby, and with nothing interesting seemingly obvious, I turned my attention to a few Common Tern chicks that Peter had pointed out.
This was when Joe said that he thought he'd seen a Roseate Tern in the flock I had checked over, and Peter said he thought he'd just noticed it as well. Typically, when we scanned the flock again, it had flown off. From the photos, we could see it was indeed a Roseate Tern, so although I hadn't got any photos, I did see it fly off, just without knowing it was one! This was for sure a great year tick. This is only the second time I've seen this species, with my first when I had just got into birdwatching on Hill Head beach nearly two years ago.
With the Roseate Tern seemingly not coming back, we headed up again this time to the Spurgin Hide, where a small time was spent with not much seen, other than a few Little Egrets.
Heading back to the Pumfrett Hide to see if the Roseate Tern was back, we saw a few Green and Common Sandpipers, but no sign of the bird we were looking for.
Back at Meon Shore, we heard that the Roseate Tern had been there, but had probably flown off with a large group of terns, so we sat down and enjoyed what was there, with a very cute Moorhen chick briefly visible before heading off into the reeds.
A large gull and tern flock flew up, but with not much else obvious here, we decided to go and check the beach to see if there was a tern flock before heading home.
With the tide still too high for anything to be on the beach, we headed back, very happy with the day's findings.
Well, another great days birding, with yet another great bird seen. Things definitely seem to be picking up speed a bit now, hopefully this continues on into August!
No comments:
Post a Comment