Grand tour of Hampshire

First I went down to Hawkhill Inclosure at first light.  While waiting for the Dark-eyed Junco to appear there was plenty of interest from a lot of Crossbills in the area.  Eentually the Junco showed on a fallen pine and in tall trees near to the pine and once I had seen it I went to join the other birders closer to the fallen pine.  The bird showed quite nicely on occasions and perched up for me to take a pretty awful picture in the bad light.

Next I went down to Pennington Marshes where there was a fishing competition going on and one of the guys had caught quite a large Flounder.  Highlights of Pennington were 4 Spotted Redshank, a Slavonian Grebe, 2 (maybe 3) Dartford Warblers in gorse near the jetty, 3 Golden Plover on the floods and 3 Bar-tailed Godwits in the high tide roost.

Next onto Barton-on-Sea where eventually pinned down 5 Purple Sandpipers feeding on rocks under the eastern cliff-top car park.  Also here was a Rock Pipit.

Next over to Ibsley but there were no Bewick's Swans - just a pair of Egyptian Geese.

Next Blashford Lakes where there was not much on Ibsley Water, no Bramblings on the feeders, however a couple of Lesser Redpolls on the feeders, a Nuthatch and the drake Ferruginous Duck from Ivy Lake South Hide were good.  The Ferruginous Duck was intially quite active and then it went to sleep in amongst the Pochard.  I then tried for the Bittern and Great White Egret but couldn't find either.

Next over to the Rhinefield Arboretum where I was expecting to have to wait for the Hawfinches to appear but a pair were on display as soon as a I arrived.  This gave me time to go over to Beaulieu Road Station but I missed the Great Grey Shrike, but some recompense came in the form of a cracking male Hen Harrier.

So ended one of the best birding days I have had for some time.