‘When the Gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of fashion’ is a rather romantic way of saying that gorse is never out of bloom.

Common Gorse starts to flower in late autumn and reaches its most prolific point in the spring but it can indeed have some flowers throughout the year.

These flowers are supplemented in late summer and autumn by those of the Dwarf Gorse which make it appear that gorse blooms consistently all year round.

The yellow gorse flowers are more noticeable in the winter when there are few other flowers open and along the seashore at Keyhaven the gorse flowers formed a distinctive feature of our walk.

Keyhaven was chosen because of the number of birds that visit the lagoons and scrapes at this time of year but there was no choice about the weather.

On this occasion it was cold and breezy so the water surface was largely devoid of waders, ducks and geese.

In addition the low winter sun meant that looking out across the sea was very restricted.

The use of binoculars and scopes in windy weather is not easy for as soon as you focus on some object the wind nudges your view, you compensate and the wind takes over again so the object you are looking at seems to go round in circles.

Nevertheless we did come across a good selection of birds resting on the islands in the middle of the lagoons.

Wigeon and Teal tuck their heads down on to the top of their wings so they look like round balls on legs.

Lapwings flock together at this time of year so when one bird takes flight hundreds of others do the same and after a circuit of the reserve they all flap down to the place they started from.

Snipe are very well camouflaged and difficult to see when they are resting at the foot of tussocks of grass so the few we did see could be multiplied tens of times to get the true number on the reserve.

Little Egret and its larger cousin the Heron were also resting on the islands but they put very little faith in camouflage and rely instead on keeping still whilst their prey drift unconcerned to within striking distance.

Black Tailed Godwits that normally feed in the shallows were only seen on the islands as were Oystercatchers, Redshank and Shellduck.

Some of the larger birds did venture out on to the water such as Brent Geese and quite a number of Pintails.

Moorhen and Coots also moved about oblivious of the weather and the Little Grebes seem to spend their lives on and below the water.

The Canada Geese however, very sensibly, stayed on the waterlogged meadow.

We were unable to look out to sea because of the wind and low sunshine but Turnstones searched for food along the shoreline together with Dunlin and Ringed Plover.

We returned to Keyhaven along a path on the inshore side of the lagoons which was fringed by bushes and young trees that are a home to some of the smaller birds.

Meadow Pippit, Long Tailed Tit, Stonechat, Greenfinch and the occasional Robin and Blackbird were seen.

Goldcrests which are one of the smallest British birds flitted about the young Scots Pine trees.

We also saw Bullfinch in their striking rose red plumage in the Hawthorns at the side of the path.

Winter is a good time to see Bullfinch which stand out against the leafless bushes and can be seen up to about half a mile away with binoculars.

Our walk turned out to be a pleasant one despite the weather and lack of birds but the large number of people out for a Sunday stroll was testimony to the popularity of the reserve.

Anyone wishing to attend our meetings or even rich benefactors should contact our secretary Ron Mintrum at 023 8089 3803