With the holidays drawing to a close, one last early morning before school started was a must. So, with a Grey Phalarope being seen at the Oysterbeds over the past two days, that was the obvious place to go.
Taking the 06:39 train, I arrived at Havant at 07:00 and the Oysterbeds by 07:15. After getting to where the phalarope had been reported, I was surprised to see no other birders present. The bird had been reported in a large lagoon, which fills up as the tide comes in. At the time, the tide was quite far out, so the whole lagoon was fair play for the phalarope.
Just as I was about to take my rucksack off to get my gear, a small bird pretty close by grabbed my attention. After scrambling my bins and camera out of my bag, I took a longer look, confirming my almost already certain suspicions that this was the bird... a Grey Phalarope
It was feeding very happily, not in the usual phalarope spinning fashion, but much more like that of a Redshank, picking worms out of the mud. It came very close at one point, before heading out much further away. Yet another lifer this holiday, adding to my British life list, now at 198, getting close to 200...
A few other birders arrived, and the phalarope came back close again, giving brilliant looks.
It continued giving great views for a while before it moved off again.
With the phalarope sticking out in the harbour, I decided to go and check the paddocks to see if anything of note was there.
Two Green Woodpeckers, Great and Blue Tits, and a Raven were all the paddocks had to offer, so I headed back to the Oysterbeds for another twenty minutes of simply smashing views before having to head off back to the train station.
So, a brilliant trip, with incredible views of a new species for me, and although completely free weeks are over with school starting up again, I very much doubt that things will quieten down in the next few months.
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