Having the converter and not being able to get out was massively frustrating. In short, I needed an adventure. But where???
According to the local birding websites, Titchfield Haven was the place to go.. A Greater Yellowlegs had been resident for a couple of weeks, and according to their twitter feed they had Avocet chicks too! I've been lucky enough to see Avocet at Brownsea Island and from the sea wall at Farlington Marshes too, but to see chicks would be quite special. Springwatch was covering them and I quite fancied the chance to see them too. A Curlew Sandpiper had been listed in the week and it looked a cracker, in its red breeding plumage. Satnav loaded. Off we go.
40 miles away.. And just a few miles from my ex work colleague (Jenni's) too. Killing two birds with one stone curlew?
I've driven past Titchfield before (or Joe did), on the day we picked up the Chilling waxwing (previous post from a couple of years ago). From the road, you'd hardly know it was there, but as you look at the map you can see it extends up the estuary, with lots of pools off it.
Again referring to twitter, the Yellowlegs is reported as being visible from the Suffern hide. Off I go.
Rammed!! The hide is full of older males in khaki! You can hardly enter the hide without tripping over tripod legs. The bird is there, but some distance off. I get a few snaps and get out of there. If only all birders did that. Let everyone else see!!
Figuring that the start of the day will be the busiest and the bird will move about, I headed back, along the sea wall to the other, and hopefully quieter side of the reserve.
A quick look for Bearded Tit in the reedbeds, sadly none, and a wander down to the Meon Shore Hide. Will the Curlew Sand be there?
Nope. But didn't matter, I'd snapped one a few weeks before at Normandy. Que cera.
From here I could actually swing a cat, the hide was quiet, and sat watching a couple of young avocet chicks. Pretty cool how they were sifting through the water, from side to side, like their parents.
A check on the other hides offered better views of the Black Tailed Godwits, and many Cetti's along the pathways between, but other than a gazillion Black Headed Gull chicks, there wasn't much else on show today. Thoughts returned to the Yellowlegs. Could I be arsed with going back into the Hide of Khaki??
Thankfully I didn't need to. Walking along the sea front (nothing out to sea other than boats and kite surfers) and I see the Khaki Clan stood overlooking a pool by the road. Gotta be Old Yeller! And it was.
A BH Gull decided to chase it for a while, but generally it stayed put, obliging for the photographers.
And then off to Jenni's for a cuppa and a natter. A good sunburnt day.
