Titchfield Haven

On Saturday we drove down to Titchfield Haven on The Solent. My eldest son purchased a super-duper long lens for his camera not too long ago and wanted to try it out at the Nature Reserve and get some close up photos of some of the birds there and it is always good to walk along the shoreline with its stunning views across The Solent to the Isle of Wight.


Surprisingly you can park right on the edge of the shoreline and there is no charge for parking - always a plus! We made our way around the little harbour where we always spot these gorgeous little birds, they are turnstones and are fascinating to watch. They don't seem very worried about people so even with my little camera I could get some close-up views.

As the name suggests these birds turn stones and seaweed looking for hidden invertebrates. These birds are strictly coastal and prefer stony beaches to sand.


We then crossed the road and made our way into the Nature Reserve which lies behind the beach and contains a range of natural habitats (river, fen, pools, reed beds and meadows).


Following this link will take you to a map of the reserve. We started off by visiting the River Meon side of the reserve and although there wasn't a great range of birds to be seen from the hides on this side I did take this photo of a magpie whose colours were stunning with the sun shining on him.

I was fascinated by the size of these fir cones, they were enormous, see the photo below where I placed a coin on top of one so you could get an idea of the size.

These little fairy doors that someone had taken time to create in the fallen tree trunk must fascinate the younger generation. There was one that had been opened and some little notes for the fairies had been left inside!

These gorgeous Marsh Marigolds were so bright and cheerful.

We then decided to split up for a bit, I wanted to fit in 10,000+ steps on my Fitbit so decided to go for a walk along the seashore while the menfolk walked around to the other part of the reserve where I would join them later.


There was a lot of sailing activity on The Solent and lots to look at as I made my way along the shore towards Stubbington.

After quite a brisk walk I went to join my DH and son at one of the hides on the reserve. This was the view from the first hide, mainly gulls but some waders and ducks to be seen as well. The noise from the gulls was quite something. 

My son got some cracking shots with his big lens from the three hides we visited on this side but I am quite pleased with the few I managed to get with my camera.

These shelduck were looking magnificent

There was a very special bird in amongst the common black-headed gulls, the gull just to the left of the twiggy bits with the jet black head and the red beak is a Mediterranean gull - a new species for us. When you see this bird you realise that the heads of the black headed gulls are not black at all but a chocolately brown.

Beautiful avocets (the symbol of the RSPB)

A lapwing feeding on the scrape

These are stunning birds with beautiful colours, they used to be so common when I was young but have become a lot less in numbers in later years.

Another view of an avocet with their unique upturned bill, it is fascinating to watch these birds feed. They skim the water moving their bill from side to side.

We spotted another couple of species that were new for us but I didn't manage to get photos of them, a black tern and some bar-tailed godwits - thanks to the informative man who I sat next to in the hide for help with the identification!


It did get quite chilly towards the end of the afternoon so we decided to call it a day but not before I had taken a few more pictures down on the coast, the sun was sparkling on the water and the light was stunning.

We rounded the day off by stopping for a meal on the way home - a perfect end to the day.

A day by the Solent

We made a trip down to the Solent on Monday. For those of you who are not familiar with the Solent, it is the strait that separates the Isle of Wight from the county of Hampshire on the mainland of England. The main reason for making this trip was because my DH wanted to see the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier which is currently anchored in the Solent off Stokes Bay (it is too large to enter Portsmouth Harbour). Unfortunately Monday turned out to be a gloomy overcast day so the photos are not the best but I think they give an impression of how enormous this ship is, there were over sixty aircraft on the flight deck.

After viewing the ship from Stokes Bay and then Lee-on-the-Solent we motored a bit further down the Solent to Titchfield Haven and parked up at Meon Shore to eat our picnic lunch. This is a favourite spot of ours and home to a national nature reserve which attracts lots of bird life as it contains various wetland habitats and is where the River Meon joins the Solent.

The weather had brightened by the time we had finished lunch so we decided to walk around part of the reserve passing the little marina on the way where there were mute swans swimming amongst the boats and also an Australian black swan plus lots of little turnstones waiting for the tide to go out so they could feed on the mud at the waters edge.

As we entered the reserve I was amazed to see this patch of cowslips, very early in the year for them and these huge fir cones, the photos don't really give you the impression of how big they were.

Once we had reached the first hide the noise of the black headed gulls hit us, there were hundreds of them, plus other birds including oyster catchers, avocets, shelduck, black tailed godwits, teal and lapwing. Oh for a long lens so I could get better photos!

A distant shot of an avocet (the symbol of the RSPB)

This black headed gull made me smile, standing on one leg and screaming at the other gulls to keep away.

A black tailed godwit searching for his food

I took these next shots as we were walking between hides, the bright yellow of the gorse looked lovely in the afternoon sunshine.

as did these backlit reeds 

and finally some pussy willow.

I love the coast and it was good to spend a day down by the Solent where there is always plenty to see and do.