Record shot of Lesser Yellowlegs .
I had a great days birding around Hampshire on the 7th , my first port of call was Drayton Lake where i lucked out with not seeing the Red Necked Grebe that had been seen the previous day , not a great start to the day , however boy did it get better.
I then headed to Lepe Country Park and as i was getting ready i soon had 2 Mistle Thrush fly over , i saw approx 5 Dunnock on the track before i reached the area where the Lesser Yellowlegs has taken up residence, a really smart wader indeed and some great scope views were obtained however it never came close enough for the camera , in the pic above you can just about make out the yellow legs.
I also saw a Black Necked Grebe on the sea, there were several wader species keeping the Yellowlegs company including , Redshank , Black Tailed Godwit , Curlew , turnstone , Dunlin and Common Snipe.
I moved on towards the Coast guard cottages area and saw 2 smart Long Tailed Ducks as well as 5+ Eider , several hundred Mallard & Brent Geese plus Grey and Ringed Plover added to my wader list.
Adult Ringed Billed Gull at Gosport.
I then headed off to Gosport for my 3rd attempt at seeing the adult Ringed Billed Gull , the last 2 times times i got the tide wrong however this time i was spot on . Here are just a small selection of pics i took .
A really remarkable bird and it has been coming back to Gosport for at least the last 10 winters , where it goes in the summer is any ones guess.
I spent a good deal of time here and had unbelievable great views of this bird .
My final destination of the day was Barnham Brooks in West Sussex , and i had a decent selection of birds here including several Fieldfare , although i did have 2 target birds and i connected with both , firstly i saw 2 Whopper Swans in with a distant herd of Mute Swans then i had decent views of 2 Short Eared Owls hunting over the fields , one of the birds was first seen resting up on a hedge calling , this is the first one i have heard .
Record shot of Short Eared Owl.
What a great day 2 year ticks and some quality birds seen .
