Pagham Harbour

We visited Pagham Harbour again and explored the north side of the harbour. We saw a sparrowhawk and a hobby. The bird lists in the visitor centre said that ospreys and avocets had been seen the week before but we didn't see any.

Hook with Warsash Local Nature Reserve

In the morning we went for a walk by the Itchen looking for the Kingfishers which I saw on Saturday, but they weren't around. I had seen two just below Woddmill on Saturday when the tide was out. The tide was in today so catching fish there would have been more difficult. We did see a very late duckling though.

In the afternoon we went to Hook with Warsash Nature Reserve and saw Black-tailed Godwit, a Heron, Little Egret, Oyster Catchers and a cabbage white caterpillar on some sea kale. It's the first time we've been there but we'll be back.

Eling

There are a couple of places that we've explored around Eling. Both times we've been there we drove in via Jacob's Gutter Lane and Eling Hill and parked in the car park which is on the right just before you reach the toll bridge.

A Cricket and Bats by the Itchen

Went for an an evening walk by the Itchen and saw a Dark Bush Cricket. By the river we saw three kinds of bats. Pipistrelle which are the most common British bat, Daubenton's which are a similar size to Pipistrelle but skim low over the water and Noctule bats which are larger (35cm wingspan) and fly higher up.

Lacewing Larva

We found this insect under a leaf on the buddleja. Putting an unknown bug on my hand might not have been the best plan as I think it might have tried to bite me. I didn't know what this was but I uploaded the photo to flickr and posted it to the British Insects and other arthropods pool and within hours flickr user mountainashe identified it as a lacewing larva. There's two more pictures of it here and here

Winchester Passion

On Good Friday we went to The Winchester Passion a passion play in the streets of Winchester. It was really good although the sheer number of people often made if difficult to see or hear what was going on. There's a group on flickr with people photos of the event: Flikr: Winchester Passion 2008