It’s the half-way point for this year’s Great Coastal Birdwatch and we’ve been delighted to see so many of you taking part already.
Here’s how Kate, who looks after Bird Aware Solent’s marketing and comms, got on:
It was Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve’s Open Day this Saturday – the perfect opportunity to do my Great Coastal Birdwatch. After heavy rain first thing, a little drizzle persisted but a broad swathe of blue sky over the Isle of Wight meant there was the promise of brighter weather to come.
Blue skies over the Isle of Wight – brighter weather to come?
I spotted the bright blue of the Bird Aware gazebo at the western entrance of the reserve and made my way in. Ranger Richie was welcoming visitors and handing out information. Richie told me I’d just missed a couple of kingfishers – isn’t that always the way?
A slightly damp Ranger Richie gets ready for the next visitor
As I entered the Meon Shore hide, a large flock of birds took flight overhead, flushed out by the arrival of a marsh harrier – I spotted a cormorant, black-head gulls, oystercatchers and ducks among them. The hide looks over the South and North Scrapes which are lakes created back in the 1970s as habitat for waders and wildfowl.
Inside Rangers Tony and Eloise were helping to show birding newcomers the ropes, along with a bunch of the reserve’s volunteers.
Rangers Eloise and Tony helped newcomers with advice in the Meon Shore hide
I needn’t have been disappointed about missing the kingfishers and the marsh harrier: from the hide I could see plenty of species to add to my bird count. I noticed the lapwings at first, partly because of their distinctive call (which sounds just like someone tuning in a shortwave radio), and partly down to their idiosyncratic looping flight with broad, rounded wings. A gang of oystercatchers added their piping calls.
A group of lapwings with their broad rounded wings
A group of oystercatchers flying across the water
There were dozens of shovelers (living up to their name) on the scrape, along with black-tailed godwits, a few moorhens, scores of black-headed gulls, a couple of grey herons, some teals, and two avocets, which Ranger Tony kindly pointed out to me. Tony had his telescope trained on a pair of snipe sitting on one of the scrape’s islands which I was also happy to add to my list.
With my birdwatch stint over, I uploaded my results using the data collection link on this website.
A pair of snipe
On the other side of the reserve I found the rest of the ranger team talking to visitors about the Great Coastal Birdwatch and about the incredible migratory journeys of some of our coastal birds. Children (and adults) were taking part in story telling sessions with author Yarrow Townsend and trying their hand at pebble painting.
Rangers Shona, Charlotte and Natalie welcomed visitors to the open day at Titchfield Haven.
It was gratifying to hear that the open day and Great Coastal Birdwatch had encouraged many locals to find out more about the birds we’ll be seeing along our coastline this winter.
Just before I headed home, across the road at Hill Head beach, I saw a crowd of a hundred or more dark-bellied brent geese bobbing on the sea, chuntering to each other – one of my favourite sounds of the Solent coastline in winter.
Have you taken part in the Great Coastal Birdwatch yet? If you’re on the coast at any time until Sunday 3 November, see how many birds you can spot in under and hour and let us know what you’ve seen by using the link on our website.
