January & February

January is a quiet month on the course itself. Food is scarce and the supply of seeds is pretty well exhausted. This does however mean that species such as the Dartford warbler, which would normally be very secretive, have to range more widely to stay alive. Sometimes a short eared owl will come in and stay for a while and maybe a barn owl.

In the sea and on the mudflats around us the situation is different.

The harbour entrance often has auks; mainly guillemot and razorbill while a great northern or other diver is not uncommon. The harbour is still full of waders and merganser, great crested grebe, goldeneye are frequent and of course the brent geese are abundant.

An occasional goosander is likely to join pochard, shoveler and tufted duck on the lake where great crested grebe, little grebe and cormorant are common. There is at least one kingfisher wintering here.

Kestrel or sparrowhawk are daily visitors to Hayling throughout the year, but the winter months may well produce a merlin and peregrine is not uncommon.

April

What had been a trickle of summer migrants in March now begins to be a flood. Most of them will stop only too briefly and indeed, if the weather is fine and the wind helpful, they will pass straight over us. It would however be unusual if the vigilant observer did not see redstart, pied and spotted flycatcher, blackcap, various warblers and maybe a yellow wagtail among other species.

The Dartford warbler will be singing this month and towards the end of the month we see whitethroat and lesser whitethroat both of which breed on the course. By now the linnets are much more abundant, the gorse and other vegetation is providing shelter for other common residents such as the blackbird, robin, wren and dunnock and the stonechats are at their nest sites.

From April onwards the flowers become more and more evident adding colour to the course. Thrift adds great carpets of pink to many parts of the course and its immediate surroundings. Yellow rattle adds its own colour and the benign Hayling Island climate often encourages other flowers to bloom earlier than they might elsewhere and so we see vipers bugloss, biting stonecrop and even the beginnings of English stonecrop. Common storksbill seems to be always present and occasionally there are still places where the rare little robin can be found. 

June

By the end of June, most birds will have finished their breeding, at least their first broods, and there will be all sorts of unfamiliar plumages on the young of quite common species. The observant watcher may be fortunate to see anxious shelduck parents shepherding their small ducklings to water from their nest, probably in an old rabbit hole.

Young black headed gulls are in evidence and perhaps the young from their similar, but clearly distinguishable, mediterranean gull. The latter gull, rather like the little egret, is a fairly recent colonist of the area and is now quite common over and around the course. Young terns also begin to appear.

The young birds benefit from the profusion of insects at this time of the year. The grassland is alive with a variety of crickets and grasshoppers and the small gatekeeper butterfly appears in great profusion along with other butterflies and some moths.

June also sees the best of the southern marsh orchid, a comparatively rare species standing resplendent in the damp cuttings.

August

The trickle of migrants, started in July, becomes a steady stream towards the end of August as we begin to see more and more of the small perching birds passing through. Because they stay longer there is a better opportunity to observe them than in the spring. Amongst these birds of passage, one may expect to see redstart, both pied and spotted flycatchers, whinchat, a close relative of our native stonechat, willow warbler and yellow wagtail. Wheatear are common.

In the harbour too we begin to see our winter migrants returning and to admire how some of them, for example turnstone and grey plover, look far more dashing in their summer plumage.

Our resident linnets seem to leave us by now although some of them can be seen in the large flocks of, mainly, greenfinch seen feeding on the seeds on the foreshore just over our boundary fence.

October

By the end of October most of our waders are here and Langstone Harbour along with its neighbours, Chichester and Portsmouth Harbours, provides internationally important sites for several species of waders and nationally important ones for others.

The harbours are also home in winter to several species of duck especially goldeneye and red breasted merganser. A small group of black necked grebe has also overwintered here and can sometimes be seen just off the Kench.

On the lake, tufted duck are present most months but their numbers increase in winter when they are joined by a few pochard and shoveler. A little grebe and great crested grebes are also usually to be seen.

Autumn is also the time of the fungus and the differing habitats of the course produce a variety of species.