If you enjoy watching or photographing Waders, Geese and most other Birds then Warsash / Hook-In-Warsash are certainly two great places to visit.
Being only a short drive from my daughter’s house in Netley, I always find time to pop over there for a few hours, never disappoints.

Black Tailed Godwit

If the tide is out or halfway between you’re virtually certain to see Redshanks, Curlews, Black Tailed Godwits, Turnstones, Sandpipers.
Duck wise there’s never a shortage of Wigeon, Shovelers, Teal, Gadwalls, Pochards. In Winter I’ve not yet been let down by strong attendance of Brent Geese.

Brent Goose – Turnstone – Wigeon

With only one day of my five there forecasted to be dry and even then only for the morning I drove to Warsash Car Park and walked about three quarters of a mile northwards toward Swanwick. On one side of the River Hamble you have an assembly of parked Yachts and on the east side just a footpath running alongside the water and some 50 meters or do of marsh and reed, ideal for a great variety of our feathered friends.
In fact, this was the first time I didn’t see one of the Kingfishers which sit on the fence posts or the steep mud banks 200 meters from the Car Park.

After an hour I moved on to Hook-In-Warsash, just a mile drive southward and closer to where the River meets Southampton Water.
My first patrol was to the water’s edge, usually I’ll see quite a few smaller birds but today, beside Blackbirds and Robins, was an exception.

From there it was further south to where the road ends. A walk along a Private Lane / Walkers Right of Way with fields both sides and nice hedgerows produced a Green Woodpecker resting, a Curlew in the river side field along with some wild Deer.
I was hoping I may see the Little Owl which I saw last year but it seems he or she has found a new daytime resting place.

Curlew waiting for the tide to go out

As I returned to the Campervan, it started to spit with rain. Perfectly timed and a very nice three or so hours indeed.
[fblike]