A return to the Hayling Snow Buntings, now up to eight - and possibly the largest flock in Hampshire for fifty years or so - didn't go entirely to plan. Unlike the previous visit I started from the west car park and walked west towards the area they were using last time. Trudging over the shingle, and with no birds other than a few Skylarks, three Stonechats and uncounted Greenfinches, became a little tiring. And worst of all no other birders. The sea was flat calm and conditions were ideal for dozens of paddleboarders but nothing on the sea, not even gulls. The walk back across the shingle was dull but things perked up when I could see three or four hunched figures just a few yards from the car!! Yep, the Buntings were almost where I'd started from, adjacent to the golf driving fence and foolishly on a public footpath and hence at the mercy of walkers and dog people. Only seven were here but as they flushed eastwards from the last disturbance picked up the eighth bird, spun around and headed back West across the shingle. Whilst loading the car a Red-throated Diver was pointed out but too far out to bother with.
The following day at TH was much sunnier, at least for the first couple of hours, and the sea was again flat calm. The Eider flock was just off the carpark and totalled 43 whilst a small group of Common Scoters, eleven in number, kept themselves to themselves. The Slavonian Grebe was again distant.
Luckily, at Eleven Acres the Jack Snipe was 'staked out by MF and others and just as well as it was well-hidden and asleep. It did eventually come out and showed well in the scope before being intimidated by a Moorhen and slipping away out of sight. The next day, in better conditions, MF managed to get some digiscoped video posted on Twitter.
