Meanderings around Calshot

On Tuesday 5th January 2009, we meandered around Calshot.

Calshot marshes were a great place for bird watching on this freezing cold day.
We didn't venture far or stay long though due to the cold and the forecast blizzards
that did bring the country to a standstill the next day.
We wanted to get home before the snows came.

Curlew

There were quite a lot of Teal, whose numbers boost to 197,000 in winter in the UK according to the RSPB.

This looks like a Twite; a winter visitor to the south coast whose numbers are declining in the UK by more that 50% due to loss of flower and herb rich meadows.

Fawley power station is next door to the oil refinery and the nature reserve.

It is not often that one gets to walk on frozen sea water in the UK.

Redshank.

Yet more Teal

Common gulls or immature black-headed gulls, I cannot tell.

Henry VIII's castle, built in part from stones from Beaulieu Abbey after its dissolution.
The coastguard tower is behind it.

Fawley oil refinery pier with the tugs that slowly spin the super-tankers around in Southampton estuary when they arrive.

A "little" tanker coming in through the narrow channel at low tide.