RALPH HOLLINS WILDLIFE HIGHLIGHTS – 1998 WEEK 52 BIRDS: THU 31 DEC. Mark Litjens toured Keyhaven, Timsbury and Farlington today in preparation for his New Year’s Day list and here is what he had to say about his day. “Today I was checking on certain species for the new years day bash. I started at near Keyhaven and had another BARN OWL at first light. On to Milford and the adult MED. GULL was parked in the pay and display car park. I couldn't see it's ticket though!!! A walk to Hurst Castle to check if the Black Redstart was still around but no sign of it. Not much passed Hurst though, 2 Guillemots, 1 Common Scoter and 1 Diver sp. A kingfisher was sitting on the bridge at the end of New Lane for a short while and 100+ Golden plovers were very well camouflaged in a ploughed field nearby. A walk from Lower Pennington Lane car park to the sea wall produced 2 PEREGRINE Falcons but only 2 Slavonian Grebes were visible on the sea. Stopping off at Timsbury on the way to Farlington produced the FERRUGINOUS DUCK and RING-NECKED DUCK very quickly. At Farlington Marshes the AVOCET showed well on the mud west of the main lagoon and some 60 KNOT were nearby. I only saw 1 SHORT-EARED OWL but 3 had been seen during the morning.” WED 30 DEC NEEDS ORE POINT at the mouth of the Beaulieu river on the New Forest shore was visited by Mark Litjens today and as he arrived a splendid BARN OWL crossed his path as a prelude to a seawatch in which he saw 1 EIDER and 8 DIVER SPECIES but a bigger and better bird was waiting for him by the disabled hide – a RAVEN which made its distinctive gruff call and fed on the ground before flying off east. At Black Gutter the Great Grey Shrike could not be located but a ringtail Hen Harrier made a brief appearance and two Dartford Warblers churred without showing themselves. At this point his pager summoned him to Timsbury gravel pit where he saw both the FERRUGINOUS DUCK and the RING NECKED DUCK. At Needs Ore a redhead SMEW had been present for the past week but Mark could not see it today – could this be the bird that Mike Harris saw on the Hermitage Stream on Christmas Day? (See Dec 29 and Jan 1) Today Paul Boult was at the Staines reservoirs and found the south reservoir virtually empty with a PEREGRINE sitting on the dry bed as if it had just drunk the place dry, but there was some water left at the other side with 30 Shelduck and a good many Teal and Shoveler among all five common gull species, Pochard, Mallard, etc. The north reservoir was full and had 21 RUDDY DUCK with Goldeneye, Wigeon and other duck species. The Peregrine must have eaten all waders as well as drinking the water – not one wader in sight. Brian Fellows was at Budds Farm and the South Moors around midday today and he too failed to see the American Wigeon (which he did spot quite easily on a previous visit to Budds Mound). The 50 European Wigeon are still present and there was one Pintail among them offshore. The eastern pool of Budds Farm is full again and had 5 Pochard as well as the regular Teal, Mallard and Tufted Duck. Black Tailed Godwit are now in short supply and Brian could not find any along the South Moors shore but the Tamarisk pool had its Egret and a Redshank feeding with 8 Magpies in the area (in previous winters the South Moors have attracted 25 or more Magpies – they seem to converge on the open moor from both sides – the trees around Mill Lane and the farm, and from the Blackthorn hedge to the west. I made a quick visit to Langstone in the afternoon when the tide was down but there was a shortage of interesting birds – the large flock of Brent are still oscillating between the Pook Lane shore and the shoreline grass fields, and there wer plenty of Lapwing but no Golden Plover and only one distant Egret and one Heron. Coming back up Wade Lane I was pleased to hear two Song Thrush singing strongly in the area north of Wade Court and south of the A27 – I still hear one at dawn every morning from my house but these are the first afternoon songsters. TUE 29 DEC Paul Boult came down to Hayling Gunner Point today from his usual stamping ground around Thorpe Park in Surrey and was lucky enough to see 10 SANDERLING running “up and down the sand and in and out all of the other people out for some fresh air”. I have seen these birds at Black Point this winter but these are the first I have heard of at Gunner Point this winter – they are regular there in winter and at high tide they sometimes roost on the spit of the Kench and feed on the sands north west of the Kench when the tide or human activity is too much for them on the Gunner Point sands. David Parker visited Broadmarsh Slipway yesterday (28th) and saw the female SCAUP and the GOOSANDER but he also failed to pick out the Americn Wigeon (I have not heard of any alternative location for it, but I think it has now left the Budds Farm shore). A message from Mike Harris contains this intriguing observation – “I saw a peculiar looking Teal at the gravel pits at the bottom of Hermitage Stream. Buff rump and grey back but with brown head, white cheeks and brown ring round throat. It looked a bit bigger than normal teal. It was alone on Christmas Day.” Presumably for gravel pits we are to read Gravel Quay and I assume the bird was in the deep water berths where the Goosander is often seen. The size, grey back, white cheeks and brown head (i.e. crown) sound like redhead SMEW and the buff rump and brown ring round the throat are not incompatible with it. Did anyone else see it? MON 28 DEC Brian Fellows had a look at both sides of Thorney Island north of the fence today and the best birds seen were a Kingfisher flying over land and a flock of 48 KNOT on the mud by the Prinsted Channel. Shelduck numbers are still low (only four in Emsworth Harbour – there should be a large scale influx soon) but Dunlin were up to full strength with over 1000 on both the Emsworth and Prinsted Channel shores. Lapwing are also here in force and a flock of 120 were on an island in the Prinsted Channel area but Brain only saw one Black Tailed Godwit and just one flock of 200 Brent. Back on Emsworth Mill Pond 112 Mallard were only four less than the peak of 116 seen on Dec 14th – with them were 43 Swans and 10 Tufted Duck. My afternoon walk from Hollybank to the Stansted Groves and back seemed unlikely to produce any bird interest – one Goldcrest and one Coal Tit plus a singing Wren were the only birds I encountered in Hollybank and there was little more in Southleigh Forest or Pond Copse. Reaching the Groves I heard Nuthatch, Jay and Great Spotted Woodpecker but it was not until I was passing Holme Farm on my way back to Stubbermere that things began to look up with a flock of 30 or more Greenfinch and another smaller cluster of House Sparrows plus Tits and Pied Wagtail.. Half way along this track, opposite the small copse, a large (100 x 50 yards) new pen has been built to hold a mixture of chickens, geese and ducks and the food put down for them had attracted many Chaffinch (over 100) and Collared Dove (up to 20), and while watching them I heard the chacking of Fieldfare in nearby trees which I found to be full of silent Redwing (at least 50 Redwing and 3 Fieldfare) that were slowly moving from tree to tree choosing the best place to settle for the night. Also in this area I saw a Heron by a small new pond in one of the fields and heard the chirruping of 20 Skylark flying overhead. A phone call today requested help with the rescue of an oiled GUILLEMOT and while there may be more tragic human losees at sea in the news today the oiling of seabirds is partiularly distressing because it is usually the result of human greed (washing out oil tanks at sea to save time in port so that the ship can earn more for its owners). Hopefully this is an isolated case but if you come on further birds in need of assistance they need to go to the Brent Lodge Bird Hospital at Cow Lane, Sidlesham for treatment (phone 01243-641672). If you are unable to take the bird there or get no answer to the phone try Anne McMahon, 86 Hulbert Road, Bedhampton (phone 01705-483770) – Anne can deal with most birds but does not have the specialized facilities for cleaning oiled birds. PLANTS: SAT 2 JAN Walking west along Warren Down from the Forestside Hut, and heading for the northern entry into Stansted Forest west, I found the first fresh DOG’S MERCURY in flower this morning where the path veers to the left and downhill around the house at the end of the track along the down.