It was a beautiful sunny morning for a change, August has been a very unsettled month to date with long spells of often heavy rain and low temperatures. I was up early and decided on a walk around Pennington Marshes for a few hours.
Arriving at 06:30 I first walked along the Ancient Highway for a few hundred metres and then to the coast via Shoveler Pools, Jetty Lagoon, Butts Lagoon then to Keyhaven Lagoon and back to the car.
It was high tide at 08:55 and I expected good numbers of waders on the pools but due to the high water levels these were rather devoid of bird activity. There were many warblers in the bushes and much of my time was spent with these.
Sedge Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Sedge Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Sedge Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Sedge Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Sedge Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Sedge Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Reed Bunting (female) – Pennington Marsh
Reed Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Reed Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Whitethroat (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Wheatear (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Wheatear (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Black-tailed Godwit – Pennington Marsh
Reed Bunting, a worn adult male – Pennington Marsh
Red-breasted Merganser – Pennington Marsh
Red-breasted Merganser – Pennington Marsh
Avocet (adult) – Pennington Marsh
Avocet (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Avocet – Pennington Marsh
Willow Warbler (juvenile) – Pennington Marsh
Little Egret – Pennington Marsh
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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