Thorney Trek

 With a day off work yesterday, I decided to head for Thorney Island, the regular reports of Osprey tipping the balance over other likely destinations. Managed to get up early and an uneventful trip along the A27 saw me arriving just after sunrise. I went down the west side, the bushes were quiet, absolutely loaded with Blackberries but not much in the way of birds😢 Coming out on to the sea wall the walk down to the security gate was more productive, the tide was going out and waders were flying in. It's a walk of two halves one eye inland on the bushes and gorse and the other on the mudflats!! Good numbers of Greenshank, Curlew, Redshank, Whimbrel, Oystercatchers and Black-tailed Godwits on the mud but inland was harder with just a few Linnets and a couple of Whitethroats seen although plenty of Herons and Little Egrets along the edges of the Deeps. No sign of any Ospreys! No Wheatears or Whinchats either, which doesn't bode well!!😲

Welcoming Robin among the blackberries

Nice views across the Harbour

Waders flying in

Sun coming up!

Common Sandpiper, I think

Nice looking sky

Little Egret

Black-tailed Godwits

Oystercatcher

Whimbrel

Plenty Greenshank with a Redshank

Common Whitethroat

Curlew

Having a scratch

Greenshank

Curlew

Oystercatcher

Through the security gate, bushes picked up a bit with a few warblers, mainly Whitethroats and the occasional chiffy but not very cooperative with the camera, the first Wheatear of the walk appear on the foreshore and posed quite well!!

It's cracking looking habitat

Wheatear

Swans sailing by

A few small groups of Starlings about

So all was going well, bird numbers were increasing, the weather was lovely, when Cowmeggadan😱!!!!!!! Now both my regular readers will remember I have completely cured my totally rational fear of huge bovines, they kill 5 people a year and it's only August! and I don't know how many they're up to😨😨😱😰 !! I marched bravely on to be confronted by a fearsome beast on the path!!

Fearsome Beast

So the stand off began, irresistible force meeting immoveable object, we locked steely gaze, who would blink first, I adopted a bullfighter stance, not easy with a camera strapped to ya chest and bins round ya neck. The Sun grew hotter, it looked at me, I looked at it (imagine the gunfighter scene from the Good the Bad and the Ugly, you can play the music as well if you want😁) Mano a Mano or rather Mano a Torro. Who would break, the beast pawed the ground, steam shooting from it's nose. The tension rose, the beast ate some grass!!😂 I decided as the pinnacle of evolution, to use brains rather then brawn and went down to the foreshore and walked around it!!! Luckily as he'd bought his mates with him!!

His mates!!

Having negotiated almost certain death, I decided to scan around the herd, least they could do was get me a Cattle Egret and amazingly I found one!! But it was buried in the long grass so pics were difficult!

Cattle Egret

I head down the path towards the point, things picked up in the bushes with a lovely showy Sedge Warbler and a few Lesser Whitethroat. Couple more Wheatears as well.

Wheatear

Linnet

Curlew

Sedge Warbler

Wheatear

Harbour View

Lesser Whitethroat

I made it to the point, constant scanning still no Osprey, but loads of Seals hauled out on the mud, mammals were also represented by a large Rat walking down the path, I  lucked into a large flock of birds, highlight a Whinchat, with a lot of Warblers and Finches, always fun trying to spot something good as they flit about the bushes! There were loads of Swallows, hawking across the airfield and a small group of Yellow Wagtails flew across but sadly didn't land in with the cows in the field, which in this case were behind a fence, thankfully!! 

Seals 

Common Whitethroat

Distant Kestrel

Linnet

Light getting a bit harsh now

Large Rat

Whinchat

Lesser Whitethroat

Whinchat

Lesser Whitethroat

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Common Whitethroat

Linnet

The heat was building now, some plonker had forgotten the sun cream,😏but I could bare the sweatshirt no longer, I stopped at the point to strip off and take on some water, the chocolate on me energy bar was liquid!!! I scanned around, Osprey distant but definite, hurrah!! it was fishing the channel near Hayling Island and unfortunately didn't come close!😢

Distant Osprey

I decided rather than head back up the west side I would carry on and do the whole circuit, mainly due to there being a lot more shady bits this way and absolutely nothing to do with having to walk back through the cattle!!!!😱😂

There was an interesting Pipit along here, strong, seemingly pink bill but think the long hind claws makes it a Meadow Pipit.

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

So I headed up the east side, a very showy Wheatear and a Green Woodpecker in the Churchyard, but the bushes giving some relief from the relentless heat was probably the best thing about it!!

House Sparrow, always a tricky ID when you see em out in the countryside

Wheatear

Spent a lot of time on the sign before relocating a the top of a tree

Starling, spent ages trying to figure out what this was as it flitted about like a large warbler😏In my defence it was quite distant and acting most unstarling like!!

Green Woodpecker

More waders, maybe Ringed Plovers amongst them

Went through the East Gate, Wader on the mud was interesting, but think it's a Common Sandpiper, also of interest a Kingfisher which sadly didn't come very close!😢 I also had eight Buzzards circling above my head!  I felt they may have been circling with a view to picking my bones clean if I succumbed to the heat!!

Common Sandpiper

Kingfisher

Buzzard

I walked along, spotting a group of Egrets containing a Great White Egret and the Osprey was on the Landing Lights!! Whoop!😆

Great White Egret and friends

Osprey

I had no sooner put the Osprey out on X when it flew off, luckily it came back and gave pretty good though sadly still distant views!!

It had a bit of a funny turn!!

Various waders didn't take kindly to it's presence including these Godwits

It tried for a fish in the deeps

They maybe be more common now, but it is still a thrill to see one, especially when it starts fishing, even if it was unsuccessful! I left it sitting back down on it's post!! I was about to start the long slog along the road back to the car park, when I noticed Gulls in the sky, hundreds of em!!! Must off been some sort of insect flush, I soon noticed a few Med Gulls in with the Black-headed Gulls!!

Final view of the Osprey

Med Gull

The walk along the road to the car was hot and tiring in the heat and largely birdless apart from the Gulls and a few Swallows that joined them in the feeding frenzy, but I've given up trying to get pictures of them for this year😏!! A very enjoyable walk, over seven miles, madness in the heat!! A shame that most of the good-uns  were too distant for stunning pics😢 Can't win em all!!!