Farlington Marshes (Ian Loyd)
Farlington Marshes which is managed by the Hampshire Wildlife Trust is nestled into the northern corner of Langstone Harbour, and is an area of carefully managed costal grazing marsh and pasture, reedbed, brackish and freshwater lagoons and Hawthorn scrub.
We were particuarly on the look out for a Red-breasted goose that was associating with the wintering Dark-bellied brent geese flocks. We soon found a flock of 150 Brent geese feeding on the eastern side of the reserve. The Red-breasted goose was showing very well amongst them. We were able to watch it from a distance of 20-30 meters. This was my first sighting of an accepted wild Red-breasted goose. There are several escaped birds at large in the UK but those that turn up with Dark-bellied brent geese around the southern and east anglian coasts are usually thought to wild vagrants. It was also quite clear from observations of the bird that it was not an escaped individual.
Red-breasted goose (Ian Loyd)
Red-breasted goose (Ian Loyd)
Red-breasted goose (Ian Loyd)
Red-breasted geese breed in the Russian arctic and over-winter around the Black sea. The majority of the population can be found in Bulgaria during the winter, where they are currently facing many threats from disturbance by hunters that are targeting commoner geese species and they face conflict with farmers for eating their crops. In the last 10 years it is thought that 50% of the population has declined. This has prompted efforts from WWT and the RSPB to try and find a conservation solution.
Later into the day we made our way up to the scrub at the Southern point of the Reserve, where a Short-eared owl was hunting the nearby grasslands. We stayed put and eventually the owl felt confident to hunt much closer to us giving us superb views of it unsuccessfuly hunting for voles.
Short-eared owl (Ian Loyd)
Short-eared owl (Ian Loyd)
Short-eared owl (Ian Loyd)
A look across the harbour revealed the usual wintering waders and wildfowl, but as the wind was so bitter, we headed back inland to escape it. Near to the lagoon we spotted a second Short-eared owl, and a fellow birder directed us to a Pipit atop a hawthorn. He was struggling to confidently identify the bird. We were able to see it for just a few seconds before it flew off. Luckily it re-appeared on the grassland in front of us. I managed to obtain a few distant shots, and a better look at the back of the bird. None of us felt at all confident on the correct identification of the pipit, as it didn't show typical features of Meadow, Water or Rock pipit. After anaylsis of the pictures it became more clear that it was in fact a Water pipit.
Water pipit (Ian Loyd)
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