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Warsash during the week may be a centre of maritime excellence but at the weekend it is turned into a centre for leisure activities of many kinds.
The attraction for the Waterside Natural History society is of course the nature reserve but when we arrived at the car park there was a group of people starting out on a vintage cycling tour and another group starting out on sailing activities.
The nature reserve lies in an area of intertidal mud flats and coastline at the mouth of the river Hamble.
Shingle spits are quite common along the south coast, the more noticeable run out from the coast, but there are others that run along the coast as is the case at Warsash.
When the shingle bank was deposited here on mudflats just off shore the sea was eventually excluded and small lagoons formed on the landward side of the shingle bank.
This has resulted in an area ideal for wading birds and migratory birds of all kinds. The mixture of shingle and rich soil from the mudflats has resulted in a diverse flora but winter is not the best time to see this.
The existence of the shingle bank also provides an excellent footpath and vantage point to view the wildlife. There is a footpath going inland along the east shore of the river Hamble but we decided to walk south along the coastal path, along the shingle spit before turning inland along Cowes lane through the old common and back to our starting point along Hook Park road.
The weather was surprisingly good after a night of storms but a brisk wind along the coast made looking through binoculars a bit wobbly.
Nevertheless we were able to see a good variety of birds.
The first and obvious bird was the Brent Goose in its black bellied variant.
This is in fact dark brown or dark grey all over with a white underside to the tail and a white collar.
They tend to gather in large numbers on the ground and flock in flight unlike the skeins of other geese.
This would make them particularly hazardous to aircraft except that they are one of the smaller geese so would do less damage than say the larger Canada Geese.
Canada Geese were also present around the lagoons but in much smaller numbers.
Studying these birds is particularly useful if they are to be kept away from airfields.
Other birds seen included Oystercatchers, Lapwing, Redshanks, Grey Plovers, Dunlin, Shellduck, Widgeon, Teal, Little Egret and Heron.
There was also a Merganser on one of the lagoons.
The return journey inland over the common and through the reedbeds was comparatively sheltered so we were able to stop for lunch before returning to the car park.
Our visit to Warsash turned out to be very pleasant but at this time of year we tend to do more walking and less standing around watching, hopefully this may change in the coming months.
All visitors are welcome to indoor and outdoor meetings.
Contact the Secretary on 023 8089 3803.
Any comments to mharrison67@btinternet.com |
