Hampshire 150
It’s not been an easy month for the team in this photo challenge
The Bird Photographer of the Year team are continuing their challenge to photograph 150 species within the county of Hampshire over the course of 2020. At the time of writing, the UK is being swept by a series of low pressure systems that threaten to strip the trees of their autumn colour, as only the most hardy cling on to the vestiges of their foliage. It won’t be long before they give up the fight and the nakedness of winter becomes a reality. The team members were hoping the storms would bring in a few avian rarities to allow them to add to the swelling list, but the impending second national lockdown may well pour cold water on plans.
Last month we reported that Keith had been busy grabbing the bragging rights with a hatful of species that are tricky to photograph in Hampshire. His efforts over the campaign have been critical to the team exceeding their goal, but it was inevitable that even Keith would slow down a bit, the number of available target species dwindling as the team continually added to the tally. However, he continues to come up with the goods, and added both White-tailed Eagle and Guillemot to the list – what an amazing effort! It would be interesting to know how many species he has seen in Hampshire, this year.
Also reported on the list last month was a Grey Phalarope which turned up on the Hampshire coast. 2020 has certainly been the year of the phalarope in Hampshire, as two Grey Phalaropes also turned up at Pennington during October. Not content at that, a vagrant Wilson’s Phalarope appeared with the Greys and put on an amazing show for what must have been hundreds of birders and photographers who flocked to see it during a stay on the lagoons that lasted over a fortnight.
Most of the Hants 150 team paid at least one visit to these birds and managed to get some fabulous images as they swam by, practically passing underneath the pointing camera lenses! Phalaropes are the most confiding of birds and we are sure that many reading this piece will have also found themselves standing by the side of the Pennington lagoons to see these birds, too.
A trip to the coast will always result in other species ending up in the pixel count, and Rob added a reasonable flight shot of Peregrine as it screamed over the seawall, to try its luck with the wader flocks.
Driving back through the New Forest, Rob stopped off at a reliable site to try to add Ring Ouzel to the list before they finally say goodbye to our shores for 2020. Unfortunately, he had to admit defeat when they refused to show themselves. It seems that this is one species that will be on the MIA list at the end of the challenge.
With three new species added over the course of the penultimate month, the current total now stands at 162. Only one month remains and it would be nice for the team to finish with a nice round figure, and 170 is certainly on the cards.
The imposition of another national lockdown will prove problematic for the team in the final months of the challenge as we are all mindful we must do our bit in the national interest. Let’s see what the coming months bring.
Bird Watching magazine is donating £2,000 to Birds on the Brink for the Hampshire 150 Challenge and we would like to call on the support of the readers too. Visit the BPOTY website and follow the link to the Hampshire 150 page and click the donation link (donations taken via PayPal) You can also see some more of the images taken by the team as the challenge progresses at birdpoty.co.uk