Coastal birds

Had a weekend sailing on Sea Scamp, a lovely classic boat built in the thirties. A new experience for me, as I’d previously only been on a small excursion around Southampton water with my brother-in-law when our children were young. We sailed to the Isle of Wight and moored at Newtown Creek, where there is a natural harbour and a nature reserve.

I saw little egrets when we were leaving Southampton: it was here that I first saw little egrets in this country and have always seen them along this bit of coast. Near our Southampton mooring there were a number of vocal oystercatchers and they were also nesting at Newtown Creek on the mudflats. Although it happened rather quickly, I rather suspect that an incident I saw when a gull swooped down near an oystercatcher, causing some consternation and flew off with something in its beak which it then ate quickly was a chick being stolen and eaten. It must be very hard trying to protect chicks with gulls around – some of which were large black backed gulls – though I think this thief was a herring gull.

There were also a couple of shelduck flying nearby and terns on the sail back. I’m not sure what kind of tern – I assumed they were probably common to start with but apparently there are arctic tern around too.

When we were sailing back to Southampton, it was quite rough, force 6 and getting towards 7 at times. Although we didn’t see any on the trip out, on the return we saw several gannets. Are they more likely to be seen in these conditions. No matter how often I see them, I think they are so amazing as they wheel around and then dive into the sea at such speed. And it is great to get the opportunity to see coastal birds given the landlocked nature of where I live.