A juvenile Kestrel

Walking along the sea wall, the low tide revealed the mud flats where large groups of waders were feeding including redshanks, dunlin, black-tailed godwits, some with the vestige of their summer plumage, a greenshank and oystercatchers.

A large group of ducks flew in and were identified as wigeon and several curlews, giving their haunting calls, came into land on the mud.  Soon afterwards a heron and a little egret came into view and a peregrine falcon raced away towards the A27.  The sides of the sea wall were covered in rock samphire.  

A group of people drew our attention to the reed beds where there were bearded tits flashing orange as they flitted across the reeds.  Pied wagtails, a lone crow and a herring gull were on the edge of the reed bed.  

After lunch we were on the lookout for a seal we had heard was basking on the mud.  A pair of common seals were soon spotted as one happened to move its head, otherwise they would have been difficult to identify, as they resembled two large lumps of mud!

A large flock of starlings were calling to each other as they fed on blackberries on a huge bramble bush and nearby a kestrel was seen hovering.  The bird plummeted down and caught a furry animal which it gave to another kestrel, probably a juvenile, on the ground.  This bird then flew off with its lunch.

Rounding the point, two black-headed gulls were seen paddling furiously in the mud to encourage their prey to surface while a couple of great crested grebes sailed along out at sea.  

Inside the sea wall, as the land became drier with grass and scrub, flocks of immature goldfinches and long tailed tits were feeding on the seed heads.  A large number of dragonflies were flying over the ditches, including southern hawkers and common darters and red admiral and large white butterflies were seen among the bramble bushes.

A juvenile kestrel was spotted perched in a hawthorn tree.  The bird posed for photographs for several minutes before moving off to a nearby shrub.  It was obviously used to encountering groups of excited naturalists!  

By the time we reached the information hut, we were feeling quite tired and sat down to watch little grebes, coots, moorhens and mallards swimming in the water.  Fortunately it was not too far back to the car park where we all agreed we had thoroughly enjoyed a glorious day on the marshes.

Beautiful photographs of butterflies, moths and caterpillars delighted the Society at our indoor meeting on Monday 25th September when Brian Fletcher of  Butterfly Conservation (www.butterfly-conservation.org) gave us a different view of these amazing insects.

Brian based his talk around their survival techniques.  Some butterflies and moths have 'eye' markings on their wings so fooling predators to attack their wings doing less harm instead of their bodies which could be fatal, while others use camouflage to blend into their surroundings.  Others just use poison, particularly when caterpillars and use bright colours to warn predators against attack.

The Waterside Natural History Society's next outdoor meeting will be a New Forest Fungi Foray on Sunday 15th October.  Meet at Oak Road Car Park, Dibden Purlieu at 10.00am (strong footwear recommended.)

The Society's next indoor meeting will be on Monday 23rd October when we welcome Paul Hibberd to talk about the Trees of the New Forest.  Meet for 7.30pm at the St. Andrew's Centre, Dibden Purlieu.  Visitors very welcome at £2.00.

Please phone for further details on either 023 8089 7660 or 023 8084 5883.