GH's recent NQS blog post regarding a single, twitchable Purple Sandpiper on his patch led me to pop down to Southsea with M for a breath of sea air, a socially distanced walk within Covid-acceptable travelling distance and the chance to sea the purps for the first time since January last year - where has the time gone??
First surprise was the presence of LCT 7074 the WW2 landing craft recently opened after renovation - see here for details - and sitting underneath its 'wavy' roof.
The tide was higher than I'd hoped and, except for a single Shag and a few gulls, it was birdless ; even the Rock Pipits were absent and no sign of yesterday's Black Redstart nor Great Northern Diver. Luckily the eighteen Purps were roosting high up the sea defences just a few yards away from the railings, mostly asleep with bills tucked in over their shoulders. Every once in a while birds would wake, call and disturb their neighbour whilst jostling for better roosting positions before settling down again. I can't think of any other waders other than maybe Turnstone that will roost so close to an area with high pedestrian access - today there were no dogs to flush them and a few people (non birders) seemed interested enough to watch and take phone camera pics.
On the way back a hundred or so Brent were flushed off the common and presumably headed to join those on the pitch and putt course.
Today, a quick local walk was fruitless and sadly the Mallard ducklings were down from fourteen to seven with mum having to chase off a couple of Brown Rats.
