28 Aug 2018

28 Aug 18 - Lily-trotter

A few days ago, another local birdwatcher bumped into the Purple Heron at Littlesea, Studland. I've not looked during the day time for a couple of weeks for it, so I thought I would give it another few hours of looking. A couple of hours were spent sitting in the Nature Trail hide where it had been seen recently. I had no luck with the Purple Heron, but this lily-trotting Moorhen came past at one point. I'm sure that many Birders tend to ignore Moorhens, but personally I like them. Moorhens have successfully made it to five of the six inhabitable continents until recently, when the New World subspecies were split as a separate species. They are replaced in the final inhabitable continent of Australasia, by the similar looking Dusky Moorhen.
Moorhen: I've seen the occasional Moorhen on Littlesea this summer, but they are no longer a common species
Moorhen: This is the nominate chloropus subspecies which occurs throughout the Palearctic & also winters in Arabia & South China
Moorhen
Moorhen
Moorhen