As you board a Wightlink ferry from the mainland to the Isle of Wight, you are about to sail from one Heritage Coast to another, across a very special stretch of water, teeming with wildlife above and below the surface.
Special Solent
The Solent is a submerged valley formed around 7,500 years ago and holds vast beds of seagrass, chalky reefs and intertidal flats. These are all home to an amazing array of wildlife, including seahorses, cuttlefish, seals, cetaceans and many species of birds, especially on the coastlines. Stepping onto one of our ferries, you are setting foot in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, designated for its outstanding ecology and culture, which covers most of the Solent and all of the Isle of Wight’s land surface.
Wildlife from the patio
The outdoor seating area of the Curlew Café in our Lymington port is a great place to start your wildlife watching before you board. Terns are often seen hovering, then swooping down to take fish near the surface of the water. Sandwich terns are the largest, with their shaggy black caps and long, narrow wings. Common Terns have short tail-streamers and a bright orangey-red bill with a black tip, and the diminutive little terns are renowned for their fast flight and are recognised by their white foreheads and sharp yellow bills with black tips. Another bird with rapid flight is the kingfisher, look out for a ‘blue flash’ as one may be on a fishing foray in the waters by the patio. Roe deer and fallow deer can be seen on the woodland edge, sometimes venturing out onto the marsh at dawn and dusk to graze.
By the riverside
As you sail down Lymington River and enter the Solent, the tidal flats are a magnet for spring migrant wading birds, as they return north from their African wintering grounds. Black-tailed godwits probe the mud with their long bills, greenshanks feed in the channels, and turnstones flip over pebbles and seaweed in search of small crustaceans. They are joined by resident waders that breed on the nearby marshes and lagoons, particularly oystercatchers, redshanks, lapwings and ringed plovers. Although still a rare sight, otter populations in Hampshire have increased over recent years, and there is always the chance of a glimpse of one of these enigmatic mammals around the river mouth.
Sounds of the salt marsh
Thousands of pairs of black-headed gulls breed on the marshes, their loud calls creating a raucous sound. The nesting colonies are always a flurry of activity, especially when the adults are feeding their young or mobbing intruding birds of prey, such as marsh harriers. A few pairs of Mediterranean gulls, shelducks and sandwich terns also nest here, and in the early part of spring, the tumbling courtship displays and ‘peewit’ calls of lapwings and the ringing ‘yodelling’ notes of redshanks bring a wild aura to the marshes.
Flying by
Spring sees the return of seabirds, and several species can be seen flying by, most still on their aerial journey north for the breeding season, especially gannets, gliding over the waves with their 2-metre wingspan and fulmars, close relatives of albatrosses. Other common birds on passage can include Arctic terns, kittiwakes and razorbills, but occasionally skuas may enter the Solent. These ‘pirates of the seas’ will chase other birds until they give up their food cache to then claim it for themselves, a feeding technique known as ‘kleptoparasitism’. Members of the auk family, Guillemots nest on the narrow cliff ledges in the west of the Isle of Wight and sometimes venture into the Solent to feed, using their wings like flippers to dive to depths of up to 180 metres in pursuit of fish. Now nesting nearby in Poole Harbour, thanks to a successful introduction scheme, ospreys once again patrol over the waters of the Solent, swooping down to catch fish at the surface.
Breaking the surface
Occasionally, a break on the surface of the water can lead to sightings of harbour porpoises as these aquatic mammals take in air. Identified by their small triangular fins, set just past the centres of their backs and their short blunt `beaks’, they are the most common of the cetaceans in the Solent, but there is always the chance of seeing common and bottlenose dolphins, which can sometimes ‘breach’, leaping out of the water entirely. Common seals, also known as Harbour Seals, have taken up residence in the Solent over the last two decades, with up to 50 recorded on recent surveys, and smaller numbers of grey seals are now also present. Both species may be seen bobbing around on the surface as they breathe or take a rest from swimming, an action known as ‘bottling’.
Approaching the Isle of Wight
Cormorants are regularly seen perched on buoys and shipping markers, often with their wings outstretched as they dry out their feathers after a deep fishing dive to the sea-bed. Great black-backed gulls will also share these perches, recognised by their matt-black wings, pink legs and their size; they are the largest Gulls in the world, with a wing span of up to 1.7 metres. Standing tall, grey herons and little egrets may be seen around the shoreline and harbour areas of Yarmouth and in the skies above, you may be lucky enough to spot one of the white-tailed eagles that have been reintroduced to the Isle of Wight over recent years and are now establishing breeding territories.
Working for Wildlife
Several organisations and conservation charities work for the benefit of wildlife in the Solent and the surrounding coastlines and run events and engagement activities to get people closer to nature. Bird Aware Solent raises awareness of the important numbers of wildfowl and wading birds present from autumn through to Spring, and the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s ‘Secrets of the Solent’ project has been instrumental in shining a spotlight on the vibrant marine life of this special stretch of water.
Get closer to nature and find out more…
- Bird Aware Solent: birdaware.org
- White-tailed Eagle Project: roydennis.org
- The National Trust: nationaltrust.org.uk
- Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust: hiwwt.org.uk
- RSPB: rspb.org.uk
- Natural Links: facebook.com/natlinks
Originally produced for Wightlife Magazine
