An earlyish look off Hill Head for yesterday's better birds started well with finding a cracking drake Long-tailed Duck from the chalets, the best I've seen in years. Scanning around picked up an inbound passerine which dropped onto the beach next to me and immediately vanished - this Snow Bunting. Later, others reported a presumed second bird east of the Osborne View. This one moved barely a few yards along the beach all day despite all the dog walkers, and was just as unperturbed by people as the bird two winters ago on the yacht club beach.
Just one c/c Marsh Harrier over the reserve although MF had a male, the first in a while, which failed to show itself in two brief stints in Meon Shore and Meadow Hides; in fact the reserve was generally quiet today.
From the restaurant over lunch a Red-throated Diver flew in, landed on the sea but quickly departed westwards, looking over its shoulder in that characteristic fashion, followed by what was probably another more distant bird.
With the tide dropping, and extra pairs of eyes, the other waterbirds became easier to locate with IC pointing out a Slav Grebe very close to the Long-tailed Duck and MFs sharp eyes finding Great Northern Diver, Common Scoter and a late Sandwich Tern. The beach held about 25 Sanderlings including the colour flagged bird and similar numbers of Ringed Plover plus a single Curlew.
Finally during one last stint of Snow Bunting photography IC kindly shouted out two fine Eider drakes which alighted a little to the east giving nice scope views.
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| Warmer colours in the late afternoon sun |
