On a bright sunny morning I had a few hours to spend at Pennington Marsh. It is sometime since I had been down to the marsh and so I was looking forward to my time here. I walked a pretty standard route taking in Butt’s Lagoon, Fishtail Lagoon, Jetty Lagoon and out to Oxey Lagoon.
As expected there were excellent numbers of waders and wildfowl to be seen on the falling tide with highlights being 250 Golden Plover off Pennington Lane, four Ruff, Peregrine, Marsh Harrier, the long staying Purple Sandpiper on the mudflats just east of the jetty, two Slavonian Grebe off Oxey Lagoon and also a Red-necked Grebe off Oxey Lagoon.
Also just off Oxey was a seal, I didn’t see it very well but I think it was a Common Seal, and a little more surprising was a recently dead Common Dolphin, see here.
After a couple of hours on the marshes I headed into the New Forest and spent an hour at Denny Wood seeing little but for the standard resident woodland species many of which were in full territorial song. A Red Kite soared overhead, still a relatively uncommon species in the forest.
Purple Sandpiper – By the jetty at Pennington Marsh
Roe Deer sporting fine fresh velvety antlers – Pennington Marsh
The Lapwing are just starting to display on the marshes – Pennington Marsh
A fine male Pintail – Pennington Marsh
Red-breasted Merganser – Oxey Lagoon
Red-breasted Merganser – Oxey Lagoon
Red-breasted Merganser – Oxey Lagoon
Red-breasted Merganser – Oxey Lagoon
Red-breasted Merganser, male displaying to the female – Oxey Lagoon
Red-necked Grebe – Off Oxey Lagoon
Slavonian Grebe – Off Oxey Lagoon
Brent Goose – Pennington Marsh
Red Kite – Over Denny Wood
Treecreeper – Denny Wood
Coal Tit – Denny Wood
Mistle Thrush – Pig Bush
Simon Colenutt
I began birdwatching at the age of nine when living on the Isle of Wight. After obtaining a copy of the Isle of Wight Bird Report from 1976 I realised that Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua, Pomarine Skua and Black Tern were regularly seen at St.Catherine's Point, only five miles from my home village of Chale Green. To a nine year old these birds were near mythical and so I just had to go and try to see them. Little did I know that these birds were seasonal and after a long winter of seeing nothing I eventually started to bump into other birdwatchers as March drew to a close. It was then that Dave Hunnybun, Dave Wooldridge, Paul Castle, Peter Gandy and Audrey Wilkinson introduced me to the art of seawatching and the joys of bird migration, I have not looked back since.
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