A quick jaunt up to PHP produced the egret immediately and from the car whilst driving, assuming it wasn't a large wind blown plastic bag!! - which it wasn't thankfully. Not such a big deal species anymore but still nice to watch, and a 'site tick', especially when catching an almost-too-large fish which took some swallowing. Unfortunately, the need for people/dog walkers to walk down to the pond edge ensured it was flushed frequently. Just one Little Egret and two Grey Herons shared the shoreline but just a single Tufted Duck and no grebes.
A nice Treecreeper was point blank adjacent to the car park on arrival and another one or two were heard amongst a tit flock which contained a Firecrest.
At QE, now much quieter than in recent days with kids back to school, a nice soup lunch and improving weather produced a curious Firecrest which sat quietly ten feet away for a few minutes, but with so much leaf still on trees it was too dark for a snap. Singles of Red Kite and Buzzard only.
Decided to have a brief look at Farlington at high tide where the lake was full of birds and the heat from the sun balanced out the chilly breeze. Good to see Avocets back, plenty of Pintail and Teal hunkered down against the reeds and snoozing, plus eight roosting Greenshanks. Spent some time chatting to DCs bird group from Dorset and was able to point out a Shorty hunting distantly in point field. On walking around a second bird appeared and both put on a superb show - good to get these with no one else around and before the point field area gets clogged up with togs and potentially padlocked gates. SEO is definitely a top 10 'desert island disc' sort of bird!! Apparently, there were a fair few mergs offshore which I didn't have time for but hopefully Black-necked Grebe, Goldeneye and Great Northern Diver will pop up fairly soon. Passerines were at a premium with just M'ipits being plentiful and a couple each of Reed Bunting, Stonechat and Rock Pipit - too windy for any Beardies today.
Finally, on return one SEO was hunting the fenced area and flushing all the gulls and waders before perching up on a fencepost just below the seawall. At the same time a cream-crown Marsh Harrier was quartering the reed bed and finally, after shooing a few cows out of the way just prior to the blockhouse, a Peregrine went off northwards, presumably to a roost site up on Portsdown.
