Trip reports

OWN TRANSPORT TRIP to KEYHAVEN - SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29TH 2008

Saturday, 29 November 2008

12 intrepid members turned out on a bitterly cold morning, and were instantly, and surprisingly rewarded, during the only sunshine of the day, with great views of four "pinging" bearded tits, including one stunning male. Perhaps just as remarkable, a Dartford warbler was close to the footpath, a short distance from the upper car park, whilst turnstones lived up to their name on the shingle below. We walked as far as Pennington flashes before lunch, enjoying an excellent mix of wildfowl and waders. Pre-eminent amongst the wildfowl were growling Brent geese, shelduck, pintail, wigeon and teal, and several pairs of red breasted mergansers. The "best" wader was a greenshank, sporting green and red leg rings, with a supporting cast of redshank, curlew and a few ringed plover. Birds were regularly taking to the air in large flocks, and diligent searching revealed two female marsh harriers quartering the distant reedbeds back near the car park. A peregrine was also seen in flight, courtesy of two other birdwatchers, who spotted it before us. Another feature of the morning was the presence of kingfishers, with much hovering over the saltmarsh noted.

After lunch, the wader count increased as a large flock of dunlin, which included some grey plovers, was observed. Up to ten snipe were also seen, plus fifty black-tailed godwit. The inevitable little egrets far outnumbered the solitary grey heron, and gadwall and shoveler became more obvious. However, by the time we started seawatching, the weather had deteriorated with cold, scudding rain and very dull light. We did manage to add an eider, a winter-plumage Mediterranean gull, and a great crested grebe, before turning inland. The only other species of note were a flock of roosting golden plover and several tufted duck, the latter on the pool below the landfill site.

Other species recorded :- little grebe, cormorant, mute swan, mallard, kestrel, moorhen, coot, oystercatcher, lapwing, black headed gull, common gull, lbb gull, herring gull, gbb gull, wood pigeon, green woodpecker, skylark, meadow pipit, rock pipit, pied wagtail, wren, dunnock, robin, stonechat, blackbird, song thrush, goldcrest, blue tit, long tailed tit, starling, magpie, crow, rook, house sparrow, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, linnet, reed bunting. (68 species).

(Footnote - we were told that a red breasted goose was in the area, but "today was at Normandy with the Canada geese" - note, we did not record Canada geese today! Hopefully, the rb goose will still be at Normandy when we visit on Sunday 6th December.)

Reported by Steve Oakes