Keyhaven Marshes (9 October 2022)
New(ish) parking restrictions at Keyhaven resulted in a slightly hybrid group trip; a small minibus full, plus one car full, thanks to Rebecca and Huw for driving. Thankfully both vehicles arrived with a few minutes of each other and we were soon gathered, ready to depart, under beautiful blue skies, albeit with a slightly annoying Southerly breeze. Our first stop was peering through the bushes/over the gate at a large lake/scrape which is a small private bird reserve off of Avon Water; apparently we could have used the new hide there but would have had to pay a year’s subscription to do so. Fortunately, most, if not all, of the birds could be seen from the road. As it was high tide there were good numbers of roosting black tailed godwits, redshank and lapwing with a single ruff intermittently visible. There were also good numbers of duck, mainly teal and wigeon with a handful of pintail and mallard and a shoveler. Moving along to Avon Water there were coot, little grebes, mute swans and, for a lucky few, a brief kingfisher: a distant sparrowhawk showed off its flap, glide flying technique admirably. Joining the seawall path we scanned the boats in the small harbour for turnstones; they have a tendency to roost on the boats at high tide, and sure enough saw a small flock of about twelve birds, many of which were cunningly positioned behind the boats windshield, sheltering from the wind. There had been a few late swallows hawking insects over Avon Water and a late sand martin flew over as we continued along the sea wall. On the marshy/scrubby landward side we saw several meadow pipits, a reed bunting and a dunnock and, as the flora became dominated by gorse, as expected, we saw several stonechats showing well. These were joined by a rather elusive Dartford warbler which was mainly seen flying between bushes and a second bird was seen briefly in the same area.
A juvenile tern that was fishing just offshore provoked a debate as to it’s identification, possibly a black tern or possibly a little tern, either way it was very late in the year to see one. We then dropped down from the sea wall to view Keyhaven Lagoon, thankfully away from the nagging breeze. A ruff, previously described on the Hampshire Bird Sightings webpage as a ‘photographer’s dream’, was still present and fed unconcernedly about five feet from the path, providing unrivalled photo opportunities. Unfortunately, although it was feeding well, it appeared to have suffered some kind of injury that was perhaps the reason it was so placid. Scanning the islands at the back of lagoon provided two juvenile terns, one little tern and the other a common tern, nicely showing the size difference between the species. There were more black tailed godwits as well as good numbers of dunlin, grey plover, oystercatcher and a few lapwing, ringed plover, knot and shelduck with a snipe and a couple of golden plover.
Moving on to Fishtail Lagoon, so called because of its shape, careful scrutiny of the far bank gave us a beautiful juvenile little stint that seemed to be loosely associating with a dunlin, thus giving an excellent opportunity to compare the size and structure of the two species. There was also another ringed plover present and then the three birds were joined by a juvenile curlew sandpiper, again giving an excellent opportunity to compare with the dunlin. A second curlew sandpiper was then located at the end of the lagoon, slightly closer than the first, giving excellent views.
Checking the Solent for birds, it was mentioned that eider were often seen in that area, at which point Rebecca saw the very top of the head of a fine male eider roosting on a spit, almost completely hidden by a shingle ridge, amongst a small number of gulls and cormorants. As we followed the sea wall round and stopped for lunch we were able to get better views of the eider, although it remained fairly motionless on the shingle spit.
Reaching the stone jetty, with its attendant turnstones, we left the sea wall and quickly came to a newish area known as the shoveler pools, comprising a couple of shallow lakes and a wader scrape. This small area held an impressive five juvenile little stints along with five ruff, a green sandpiper, a redshank and a couple of dunlin and ringed plovers. The only northern wheatear of the day had been seen by Ray who’d ventured further along the sea wall than the rest of the group. We then joined up with the main Lymington/Keyhaven footpath and started the walk back to the car park. There’s a large lake, on land that was previously a rubbish tip, visible from the path and that held the days only brent goose and a few tufted ducks. The return journey added a showy male kestrel as well as a vocal cetti’s warbler and a couple of goldcrests.
Altogether about 66 species were seen on a very pleasant and bright early October day.
Report by Andy Roberts