Hampshire birding and beyond

Well a week on exactly from the Squacco Heron Friday 31st May and another good bird breaks. A Red Necked Phalarope had been found down at Pennington Marshes on Fishtail Lagoon. Albeit not that rare and a bird I have seen 3 or 4 times in Hants it's always nice to get a spring summer plumage adult and yet again I was in a shop, this time not as bad as IKEA but Halfords in Hedge End. Being my girlfriends day off I don't think she was too keen on me going out but I said I wouldn't be long and I would like to see it so she eventually agreed.  I set off west along the M27 and it was clear the traffic was going to be a nightmare. I came off and foolishly headed into Lyndhurst, big mistake!!! I turned off and done abit of a de tour around the minor roads and back through the forest and eventually nearly 2 hrs later arrived at the car park at lower Pennington lane.  I wasted no time and got down to Fishtail Lagoon quite quickly and immediately met a group of birders who were already...

As some of you may recall around 3 weeks ago I remarked on Twitter that hants birding should be changed to 'pants birding' as generally there was nothing in the county whilst everywhere else seemed to be picking up stuff even if not mega rare. It transpires now perhaps I should open my mouth more often as since my initial tweet Hampshire has picked up with some good birds. Firstly a Squacco Heron was found on Friday 24th may at Titchfield Haven. This is a good county bird the last being some 20+ years ago at the same site so therefore this would be a county tick for me. However there was one slight problem I was in the middle of Southampton shopping with the other half in IKEA!! I couldn't believe it, I never go shopping but when asked that morning I decided to go along which could have proven a costly mistake! The shop itself is very big, confusing and in general pretty shite. Thankfully within 2 hours of the news initially breaking I found myself at posbrook flood along w...

Haven't really had time to blog about days 2 and 3 in Cyprus and now can't really be bothered to rack my brains doing a day by day account. Basically the next 2 days were like the first, very productive with lots seen including our main 3 Targets of Cyprus Warbler, Cyprus Wheatear and Cyprus Scops Owl which were all seen on the first day. Below is a selection of my best pics from the trip and hopefully next time I won't be as lazy and post up a trip report properly.  Cyprus Warbler Cyprus Wheatear Masked Shrike Spur Winged Plover Little Crake Hoopoe Black-eared Wheatear  Marsh Sandpiper Citrine Wagtail Cyprus Scops owl Cretzschmar's Bunting Short Toed Lark Lesser Whitethroat Black Headed Wagtail Wood Warbler Crested Lark