River Itchen (Winchester, Hampshire)

Farlington Marshes, Hampshire, England

Here are a few snaps we took yesterday on our trip to Farlington Marshes. This was the first time we had been this place - as we are relatively new to Hampshire - and we were quite amazed at the wealth of bird life we found. Of course we found the usual suspects such as, Redshank, Curlew, Plover and Geese in large quantities, but we also had the add bonus of seeing our first Short Eared Owl, which was hunting for it's dinner - so I've uploaded some video footage we managed to take of this exciting spectacle. I hope you enjoy what I've posted and if you ever get a chance to visit this place, although it's not in the most tranquil of locations being sandwiched between Portsmouth and the M27 motorway, you won't be disappointed.

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Brent Geese

....and again

Ringed Plovers

Low tide

Goldfinch

A selection of Brent Geese, Redshank and Curlew

Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth

Low tide

A view over the flats 

Short Eared Owl!

This was the first time we had ever seen one of these beautiful birds either in captivity or in the wild. It took us a little while to narrow down what it could have been. First, we had to eliminate two of our most common species: the Barn Owl and the Tawny. When you see it initially it looks like a large Barn Owl because of the shape of its head, but of course Barn as well as Tawny owls are nocturnal so it couldn't have been one of them. My suspicion was a Short Eared Owl and on investigation both within our guide books and on the sightings board that suspicion was confirmed. Wow, how exciting! We managed to watch a very good hunting display for quite a while as it didn't seem to be bothered by us or the gathering band of locals with large camera lenses. We had come to Farlington to see primarily waders, sea birds and maybe a Marsh Harrier or two, so this was an added mega-bonus.

 A video of a short eared owl hunting for dinner

We managed to get some good footage of the bird hunting.

......and again

Diane and Elsa

Elsa looks bored. I don't think she shares our liking for birding or other boring Human activities. She probably wonders why we don't go around sniffing everything.

Never mind Elsa don't worry we'll feed you soon

Oystercatchers (mid shot)

Brent Geese (rear) and a Curlew (centre)

Now I've considered this one for a while and I've come to the conclusion it's a Stonechat

A glorious sunset over the marshes

 It was quite warm today which is very unusual (bizarre?) for November. Not saying just observing.

An Egret doing it's thing

Autumn Colours - New Forest, Hampshire.

Here are a few pictures we took on our sunny trip to the New Forest. The main purpose of the trip was to try catch some deer rutting. Unfortunately, we didn't see any, although we did manage to find a relatively

large herd of fallow deer that allowed us to get quite near for long enough to get some photographs. We also managed to get some glorious shots of this years autumn foliage in what turned out to be a surprisingly sunny English dawn - great!

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Diane at dawn

Our first glimpse of a herd of Fallow deer

We stood and watched them for quite a while, then they just turned around a wondered gracefully back into the wood. To me they seemed to be beckoning us in and inviting us to follow them to meet the rest of the gang. So we decided to take up their offer to see what we could find.

I took this photo thinking I only got a doe but on further inspection I managed to get a buck as well - left of picture.

A Fallow buck

After following our four legged guides for a while we came across this buck. After getting our eye in we noticed the herd was located directly behind him. I wanted to get closer for a better shot but the buck was most definitely on sentry keeping a beady eye on us, so I didn't push it - I didn't fancy deer antler stuck in my delicates!

He's not budging and I'm not testing

A doe checking us out from a clearing. 

I was quite surprised at how relaxed they all were; we found they didn't flee in a panic. They just watched us for a while then casually moved onto more exciting things - don't blame them really, we must have been as dull as dish water.

oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh, failed!

No gold medals for me, just wet legs.

Stunning colours!

For whatever reason the autumn colours here in the south of England are definitely deeper and more vivid this year.

..........and again

1, 2, 3,...erh, I think we're missing a leg!

This was most definitely a great morning; the New Forest was absolutely glorious; and although we didn't see any rutting I was glad we made the effort to get up early. What difference a bit of Sun can make, eh? Moments like this kind of make you feel glad to be alive. Thanks for looking. Hope you enjoyed the photos. If you're ever in Hampshire check out the New Forest - we love it. 

All here for next years Nightjars, then? I think some planning needs to be done.