A good spot or 5

The weather forecast keeps looking awful - snow, snow and more snow. So far though we've only had one big fall. With another day planned to go south the forecast looked bad, with the potential for snow showers from mid morning. I decided to risk it though and was defrosting the car at just gone 6. It was a new site for me today, Normandy Marsh. This is part of the series of lagoons and marshes along the south coast opposite the Isle of Wight. I got to the parking area about 8.30 after stopping off for a refreshing cuppa on the way. The skies did indeed look very threatening with clouds building over the Isle of Wight and a rather fresh wind blowing! Still, no use sitting in the car so I put on my full wet weather gear and set off. The walk is quite short to get you to the edge of the Solent and a series of marshy lagoons.

I had three species on my target list, all new for the year. The first I got almost as soon as I started going through the birds. This was a very smart greenshank feeding close by the path. They are medium-sized with a slightly upturned bill and yellowy-green legs. 

There were a number of other waders with it including the commoner relative of one my other targets, the common redshank. The difference in "jizz" is marked, with the redshank being dumpier and much shorter in the bill department.

As I made my way round the main lagoon I got to see a number of other waders including both godwits (black-tailed in the photo below), dunlin, curlew, avocet, turnstone and another year tick in ringed plover.

There were also quite a few brent geese flying in from their roost and little egrets were stalking the waterways.

The bird I was really after though was the spotted redshank. In summer breeding plumage they are incredibly handsome dressed in black with white spots. In Winter they are duller but still quite delicate in comparison to common redshanks. Their call is also different which is what initially alerted me to one dropping onto the edge of the pool.

By the time I got close it had gone to sleep! You could see its almost spotty plumage, the red/ orange legs and the hint of an eye-stripe.

Finally it woke up and showed its dagger-like bill. This is often the thing you pick out first as normally they are not this confiding. The weather was starting to change as well, and with the non-snow bearing clouds drifting off the sun came out and showed its plumage off nicely. Another day when if I had believed the forecast I would have stayed at home!!!!!

Finally I found my last target for here, a male scaup. This is a diving duck, superficially like the much commoner tufted duck but with a light grey back.

It was a long way off!!!

On my way out I came across two other spotted redshanks. One had decided to go into deeper water and was swimming!! The other landed on what it thought was a nice pool but was actually frozen leaving it looking rather confused!!!

That was the end of the fun for Normandy Marsh, a very successful trip. On the way back I stopped off at Acres Down. This is a hot spot for goshawks and they are just starting to do their display flights. I did see two but hey were a long way off as they so often are there. With them it took me to another 5 for the year and up to 160. That will probably be it for January so let's see if we can find a nice lifer or two in February.