Chapel St. Leonard

Driving lessons first thing this morning...worried constantly about that bloody Audouin's coming up while im try to parallel park or sumit, then telling my instructor ive gotta get home...thankfully it waited til i had finished before it decided to show itself.

Straight on the 'dog and bone' to Fuller, and we were whizzing up the motorways. The roads were terrible...constant traffic up the M3...congestion on the M1 (as always)...A1(M) diversions...M11 it was..meaning we would have to cut back across the long way...

it took 5 1/2 hours to get there o_0 not good!! And this is where things began to get very bad indeed. The bird was reported to fly off minutes before we got there...a brief seawatch got us a Black Tern...before deciding we would check out other stretches of the beach..heading back to the car... i hear an almighty crunch...oh FUCK!! its my camera and lens on the deck in pieces.

Somehow..i cant explain it, my back had opening and it had fallen out onto the concrete, typical we had just come of the grass too. Well i was in a mood from there. No sign of the Gull...4 Arctic Skuas north - well worth the effort!!

Pennington, Thamesmead, & Richmond Park

We went again at Low tide to see whether the Kentish Plover was still about at mid-morning, hoping that it would be showing as well as it apparantly was yesterday around the same time. It always helps when the bird is actually present, and these little waders reknowned for not sticking around long, wasn't any anomoly. However on arrival 2 Spoonbills flew in over head, looking to land. They eventually landed on the Jetty Lagoon, where i managed some record shots of the birds.

Both the Spoonbills on the Jetty Lagoon, the ringed bird is the regular bird here, that was apparantly ringed in Holland last year © Ashley Howe

Also in the area, there was a Whinchat, another passerine which i should have seen already this year, but hadn't. A Whimbrel flew over, but other than this, there wasn't anything else in the small area we covered, before heading North. We decided to 'twitch' the White-winged Black Tern at Thamesmead, London. The Adult bird had disappeared once, and returned soon after, and was frequenting the outfall.

One of two Dunlin on the Jetty Lagoon, and coming fairly close, if it wasn't for the channel they probably would have been even better © Ashley Howe

It wasn't long before we arrived, and the bird was simply circling the wooden structure. If not abit distant, the bird was certainly showing well. Before it simply disappeared into thin air once again.

Time was pushing, and there was a late afternoon dash, (in poor light) to get to Richmond Park, thanks to Franko and a friend for information. It didn't take long to find our first Ring-necked Parakeets as they are so plentiful in this area. But poor light conditions and constantly looking up into the sky at them wasn't the best to photograph them.

A poor selection of shots of the Ring-necked Parakeets, you can see the light is pretty naff in all of them © Ashley Howe

Keyhaven Marshes

I got the new mid-afternoon of a juvenile Kentish Plover at Keyhaven Marshes. A while later it eventaully made it onto the pager, as Lee and myself were whizzing down in 'The Saxo' with one wheel trim missing!! Time was getting on, and it was looking very bleak, strong wind. And the tide had come right in.

With just a few spits on show at range. Ringed Plover could be picked out...just. An hour passed with no sign. Until i managed to pick up a distant paler, and smaller Plover with its back to us roosting. Eventually it stirred, turning around breifing revealing itself to be the right bird. Phew, that was almost a dip there!

Avon Valley

The White Stork was reported there again during the morning while i was at work, once i had finished Lee and myself thought sod it. I decided we would go and find it...no luck, yet again. Hopefully this bird will settle in a regular place sooner or later.

Farlington Marshes

A mid-morning visit to Farlington Marshes where Dan Houghton had contacted me before hand, making me aware of a call he had recieved earlier this morning. A reliable friend of which claims 2 probable pratincoles (thought to be Black-winged), firstly one over the main lagoon, before seeing both hawking over The Deeps together.

The weather was terrible, but Dan and I gave it a shot. Surprisingly we found nothing, a good number of waders on the main lagoon, held absolutely nothing of any interest, but i did actually manage a first for the year...wait for it....and im quite embarrassed to say it...but Wheatear!!

Chew Valley Lake

I finally gave into the Yank Herring Gull in Somerset, with a Fudge Duck there as well, it could potentially be a fairly good trip. The Gull hadn't been reported for a few days now, but thats presumably because everybody else in the country had seen it, in the time we took to decide. I went with Lee Fuller and arrived roughly mid-morning. No sign of the Gull.

Mute Swans are easy targets for crap photographers like myself, but Pochards rarely come that close, this one was no exception © Ashley Howe

So went round to Heron's Green Bay where it didn't take long to pick up on the Ferruginous Duck. At range however. We drove closer, but some how the bird had disappeared into thin air. We gave up shortly after that looking for it. So went back round to Herriot's Bridge to look for the Gull again. Via the cafe, which i highly recommend visiting guys!!! There is one stunning girl serving there!!!

A Pied Wagtail on the foreshore of Heron's Green Bay, it did have to legs! © Ashley Howe

But anywhooo, we waited for hours around Herriot's Bridge with nothing more than a Yellow-legged Gull. We left late afternoon after paying the cafe another visit (Lee insisted on a cuppa - sad twat ha ha). Before going back and relocating the Ferruginous Duck for others.

A rather distant Fudger © Ashley Howe

Middlebere Farm

After work, a quick dash into Poole before the girlfriend came round, got me the female Lesser Grey Shrike currently residing in the same field as a yellow digger. Unfortunately it wasn't showing as well as i had hoped....and although Shrikes are as sexy as they are...this one didn't really do it for me. The most exciting thing it did was probably stick its head in the air when a Fox popped out of a bush before re-entering.

A very heavily edited shot, which you can probably tell, from the rather bulbous shaped head :-/ © Ashley Howe

Titchfield Haven & Langstone Haven

Lee and I got down to Titchfield Haven just prior to opening, hoping to connect with a Roseate Tern and perhaps some Black. There was very little in terms of Terns about the area today, though in recent days a few hundred had been gathering off shore and infront of the Meon Shore Hide. A few Arctic Terns flew through early on, but nothing else until we heard of the Northern Bottlenosed Whale that had beached itself in Langstone Harbour.

A small selection of the Northern Bottlenosed Whale, but i dont understand why they're trying to save it when its going to die? © Ashley Howe

Popping back into Titchfield Haven before heading home, to see whether there was a change in the number of Terns gathering. Which there was....now there was less!! Bollocks!

I hate Titchfield Haven for photographs....makes the birds go weird....theres a Coot that thinks it can walk up-straight and a Common Sandpiper trying to eat its own reflection © Ashley Howe

New Forest

A quick visit into the New Forest, again another site that will remain undisclosed for now, but had great views of a female Nightjar, circuling overhead, while a male churred down in the valley.

Itchen Valley Country Park

Yesterday a Gropper was reported from Itchen Valley CP, not really expecting it to still be there, Lee and I got up early to go to this local location. Surprised, we picked up on the bird reeling at a fair range, narrowing it down to a small area. Reeling constantly til at least half 10, it showed itself very briefly, allowing just a few photos before typically singing form the undergrowth again.

Sadly i was too slow picking up on the bird singing unlike Lee © Ashley Howe

After we payed Lakeside Country Park a visit, though there wasn't anything else there either, and was very quiet, though it did allow a few very good photo opportunities with Great-crested Grebe.

Adult Great-crested Grebe in mid-preen © Ashley Howe