Peter Jones Wildlife blog

First trip of 2015 to Hurst. A few birds "missing" from the end of 2014. Notably Black Redstart, Raven, and Black Throated Diver.  Did see Two Peregrine, a couple of Hundred Dunlin, Red-Breasted Merganser, Pintail,  distant Gannet, and a 1st Winter Male Common Scoter on the sea, which had me confused at first. #Hurst #seawatch

This morning at the very iconic Hurst castle. Weather was mild and the tide falling. The sea was very quiet for bird life. 6 Common Scoter, 2 Eider, and 2 Black-throated Diver were the highlights. The Divers called as they flew past giving a nice brief image of northern Scandinavia, and conveniently confirming them as Black-Throated beyond any doubt. (Divers in flight being tricky at the best of times). Overhead a Skylark called. Never had any real vismig going on at this location Elsewhere the scrub around the castle was quiet. The saltmarsh was full of waders and wildfowl. A Greenshank was the best I could manage amongst the many Dunlin, Curlew, Turnstone, Brents, teal and Wigeon. A pair of Stonechat completed the morning. #seawatch #Diver

Report from a very enjoyable survey across the Irish Sea. #seawatch   #marinelife   http://www.marine-life.org.uk/heysham-belfast/2014/08/1-2

Spent the morning at Hurst and Pennington Marshes. Hurst Seawatching was pretty slow with just a Common Scoter, Guillemot, Peregrine. Raven, and a small number of Mediterranean Gulls. Had a very distant White-winged gull which looked may have been an Iceland, but it spent most of the time flying away from me. Adult Winter too which would have been a good bird to confirm. The lagoon and saltmarsh was much better with the Black Brant showing well, and a Knot, plus several Pintails and Red-breasted Mergansers. Pennington Marshes at high tide was full of Wildfowl and Waders. Hundreds of Wigeon, Lapwings, and Dunlin, plus a distant Ruff (probably the furthest bird on view!). Also Golden and Grey Plover.  Finished the morning witnessing an almighty row at the car park between a family and a large group of dog walkers.. not pretty! #hurst   #seawatch  

#Hurst #Seawatch, Dunbridge lake, and the Leica #Duovid A couple of Sunday mornings spent in the field recently.. A few hours sea watching at Hurst ticked over, with a good selection of wildfowl including Eider, Common Scoter, Pintail, GoldenEye and Wigeon plus Red-throated Diver and Red-Breasted Merganser. Closer to home, an hour at Dunbridge lake was fairly uneventful with just 16 Wigeon the highlight. I'm getting used to a new pair of binoculars: traded in my old Leica trinovids for a used Leica Duovid (8+12x42). For anyone unfamiliar with this model, you twist both barrels to choose either 8x42 or 12x42.. 8x being good for close or cluttered habitat, 12x coming into it's own for more open habitat. Both magnifications are very sharp and clear, and although pretty heavy, the bins are well balanced. Hand holding at 12x is quite easy. So they look to be a good buy, and maybe surprisingly, they arent more popular.

Spent a couple of fairly quiet seawatching sessions at Hurst recently. Very few seabirds other than a trickle of Med Gulls. Keyhaven has been pretty quiet too with just a Merlin of note. Closer to home, at least 3 Stonechats have returned to local farmland west of North Baddesley. These are a very welcome sight as a mixture of habitat loss and bad winters had pretty much wiped them out in much of the surrounding area. #Hurst #Seawatch