11 June 17 - Bonuses of Gardening

During the spring Birding season, the garden tends to get a big overgrown with weeds as obviously the Birding takes priority. But as the local Birding quietens down, then I end up having to spend a fair bit of time to get the garden back under control. Usually there are a few bonuses of spending time in the garden & this year was more interesting than usual with my third & fourth records of Large Skipper.

Large Skipper: Only my third record for the garden, with the fourth on 1 July 17

The gardening also produces the first records for the year of my resident Dark Bush crickets.

Dark Bush Cricket: Nymph

The highlight of the gardening was getting adopted by one of my local Blackbirds. Occasionally, in previous years, a Robin has appeared to check out the gardening. However, when that has happened, they have never got particularly close. This summer this male Blackbird appeared quickly as soon as I started gardening & was very happy to be looking for food about as close as two or three feet away. In the end, I kept moving up & down the garden a bit more to give it a bit more room to look for worms in the area I had just been working on. Although, he quickly moved to where I was currently removing weeds from, if I didn't move on. Clearly, this gardening worked out well for both of us, as I've had up to four young fully grown Blackbirds in the garden for the last few weeks. What I particularly enjoyed was being able to get the SX60 down at ground level & angle the viewing screen up so I could frame the photo without having to lie down to take the photo. It's rare that I get the opportunity to get a up close ground view: when I do it always feels very rewarding.

Blackbird: Male. Great to be adopted by this individual

Blackbird: With this interest in gathering worms, it's no wonder why the youngsters were well brought up

Blackbird: Must have been watching Puffin videos with a bill full of fish through my window

10 June 17 - 7 (00) Up

On 7 June 17, there was a very brief mid-week sighting of an Elegant Tern on the Eastern side of Hayling Island, Hampshire, but so brief that only a handful of locals managed to connect. Searches the following day proved negative, but then another tantalising sighting on Friday 9 June. Despite being another fleeting sighting, it gave hope that it might get pinned down somewhere in the area over the weekend. I spend some time looking at maps of Thorney Island & the surrounding harbour which forms the border between Hayling Island & West Sussex, with a view to try sorting out the most likely Tern colonies that it might be in & potential viewing points. But before I made any efforts to head off East, there was a Mega alert on the pager to say it had been seen one harbour further East at Pagham harbour. This perhaps explained its fleeting visits across the border to Hampshire. A quick call to alert Peter Moore, who was miserably being dragging around the Brownsea reserve by the family & visiting friends. Normally with Peter & family, it is the reverse, but as this was a potential UK Tick for him & virtually on the doorstep, he felt the right to be miserable. It was clear that trying to arrange a rendezvous with my twitching buddy would not work, especially as there was a three line whip to ensure he was back that evening, so I grabbed the cameras & headed off alone.

The pager was telling people to park at the RSPB centre & walk along the coast. I decided to chance heading for the small Church Norton car park, figuring that some of the quick responding locals would be leaving to avoid the arriving crowds. It worked, one spare place in the car park & 100 metres later, I arrived at the viewpoint for the Tern colony. The only problem it had headed back out to sea an hour ago. A group of locals suggested sticking with the Tern colony viewpoint than the beach, as it would be better views there assuming it had just gone fishing. After a wait of well over an hour, there was a shout at the other end of the group of viewing Birders. There was no possibility of hearing any quick directions, due to the usual many close & loud shouts for directions, which drowned out any chance of the required directions. But after a minute or two, word filtered down that it's on the spit. After that there were directions to the spit, which I hadn't noticed, having been focused on scanning the harbour entrance. Perhaps it had returned over the field of view of my scope or having overflown the shingle bank. Either way, it was academic as I could now see it. A long overdue British Tick finally seen. Even better this was species 700 for the Western Palearctic (based on the AERC taxonomy & boundaries i.e. the BWP boundaries). Not a list I take too seriously, but good it has finally reached 700.

Elegant Tern: A crap SX60 record shot as I arrived to find a flat battery in the 7D, with the spare in the house. Surely if the Sandwich Tern was going to stand on another's back to see its rare cousin, it would actually look at it!

I half toyed with the idea of going for one in 2013 on the Shannon estuary, but family commitments really made that difficult. Had I gone, I probably would have dipped, but would have been perfectly placed for the Wilson's Warbler twitch on Dursey Island. But then I might not have made the effort for the cracking Wilson's Warbler on Lewis in 2015, so perhaps best I didn't go. There have been other UK contenders with one in Devon while I was abroad. Also one in Dorset, when I was working in Bath at the time & I belted for, but abandoned the twitch & headed home when news of its departure reached me. There wasn't the time to get there once it was refound & it wasn't there the next day. Neither was I as I had to be back in Bath that morning. Today none of the previous British contenders have been accepted, but now a colour ringed individual with a known DNA pedigree has turned up in the UK, perhaps the authorities with consider accepting some of the previous UK candidates.

I felt sorry for the Hampshire Birders who spent a lot of time, desperately trying to see it around Hayling Island, knowing it was a few miles further East at Pagham. Less than a couple of weeks later, when it turned up on Brownsea, I spent four hours that evening & another two from first light scanning from my Studland patch at the Poole Harbour mouth for it. During that time, I got a call from Paul Morton who runs the Birds of Poole Harbour charity, that he was watching it on their Brownsea camera. But with no access to Brownsea that evening, all I could hope would be it would fly out of the harbour on one last feeding trip that evening or for an early breakfast flight: it didn't. I managed to join a few of the locals on a visit the following evening: a great evening except the main star wasn't there. There were a few claims during the day after it disappeared off the Brownsea camera in the early morning, but none sounded reliable. I will just have to hope it decides to return to Brownsea next ear & stay for a few days. It has been seen in a number of French colonies over the years, so it isn't impossible.

21 May 17 - Green Hairstreak on the Patch

I'm catching up with a backlog of photos from earlier this year & came across this Green Hairstreak photographed at Greenlands Farm on the Studland patch. Greenlands Farm can be a good migrant pocket for Wheatears, Whinchats & Warblers and has produced some of the rarer passerines on the patch over the last few years with Rose-coloured Starling, Red-backed Shrike & Richard's Pipit (along with a bonus Hoopoe). But there were few migrants around at Greenlands on 21 May this year. However, I did get my best photos of Green Hairstreak from the patch. Some Birders are purely into Birds & don't look at other wildlife & therefore would have been disappointed in the morning. But having a wider interest can help brighten up an otherwise dull Bird day.

Green Hairstreak

Green Hairstreaks are a species that occur in low numbers on the Studland patch. I suspect they are probably not uncommon around the Nature Trail around Littlesea, but as this isn't a migrant area, I rarely spend much time there during May when Green Hairstreaks on the wing.

11 Apr 17 - Spot the Difference

I published some photos of the Fovant Badges in Wiltshire in a previous Post.

Fovant Badges: photographed on 13 June 14

I stopped for some more photos as I past the Fovant Badges back in the Spring, which allowed the chance for a Spot the Difference photo. It's not a very difficult competition, so no prizes.

Fovant Badges: photographed on 11 Apr 17

The new badge between the Post Office Rifles and the Devonshire Regiment is to commemorate the centenary of the carving of the first of the Fovant Badges, the London Rifle Brigade, which was carved in 1916.

The new centenary badge with the Devonshire Regiment badge

A number of other regiments who were based at the Fovant camp for training before being sent to the trenches went on to carve their own regimental badges. Sadly, a number of these have now been lost, although a few photos exist of them on the history of the Fovant Badges website.

The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, 6th City of London Regiment & Australian Commonwealth Military Forces Badges

The Royal Corp of Signals, The Wiltshire Regiment & the London Rifle Brigade Badges

Additional badges were carved by troops in the Second World War & the badges for the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry & the Wiltshire Regiment weren't carved until the 1950s. Around 2003, there was another attempt to restore the Fovant Badges to their current splendor. I hope this continues & it would be great if the locations of the other lost badges could be identified & recreated.

25 Feb 17 - Getting The Hump

Checking the pager services on Thurday evening produced an unexpected message of a Humpback Whale being seen off Slapton Ley in Devon in late afternoon, with it still being there at dusk. Over the last decade I have heard of a few sightings in the UK, but rarely are any of them in the South. The most frequent locations seem to have been off the Shetlands or Yorkshire coast: neither of which have been particularly convenient to consider for an on spec trip. So one less than three hours drive on the Devon coast was certainly interesting. It was a frustrating day at work yesterday with a few updates that it was still lingering off the Slapton coastline with one Dorset Birder reporting it down to 20 metres offshore. As always there is the uncertainity of why a large pelagic Whale should be seen so close to the shore. The speculation from the Birders was it was down to close in fish shoals which were also attracting a number of Harbour Porpoise & Dolphins, as well as, large Gannet numbers. All potentially supporting the fish shoals & feeding Cetaceans theory. The local press were in favour of it being of its last legs which would be quite a feasible option, but they didn't seem to be quoting any experienced local naturalists. There was no opportunity of taking a few hours off to head West on the Friday. But there was only one day to last to the weekend. 

The forecast for today was for rain to set in from early afternoon, but that looked long enough to allow an early breakfast & the chance to head West based on early news. There was news by 09:00 & I was quickly heading off, with just a short diversion into Wareham to pick up Peter Moore. By late morning we arrived at the northerly most car park along the Slapton coast. About the first person seen was Julian Thomas who confirmed he had seen it about an hour earlier, but it had gone further North and was perhaps a couple of miles or more further away from where we were looking. Soon after that Julian spotted a tweet of it being off Blackpool Sands (close to three miles further North). Deciding the views would have been too distant from where we were, Peter & I decided to head in that direction. After a couple of miles, we found a small layby with a couple of cars in it & just enough room to squeeze my car on the end. We quickly joined a couple of other people looking, but they had not seen it. But there were Gannets feeding close in offshore & good numbers of Gulls so it was worth giving it some time, especially once I managed to get the car fully off the road when one van left. Ten minutes later we had had some short views of a Harbour Porpoise close in off the layby before it disappeared out of my line of sight around the headland.

Harbour Porpoise: Despite seeing at least four Harbour Porpoises, this ropey photo was the only photo I managed. Later in the afternoon, I saw a Harbour Porpoise fairly close to the Humpback Whale. With the large numbers of members of the public enjoying the Whale, but being pretty clueless, then I suspect this was the source of the news that the Humpback Whale was a mother with a calf

Peter & I split up to try different viewpoints as neither viewpoint allowed a huge amount of sea to be seen. The sea was choppy with breaking white waves to fool me into thinking I needed to check each new set of white waves. Then I checked one of the fresh patches of white waves & there was the Humpback about a half mile out from the layby. Not as close as I would have liked, but even on a brief view I was happy it was a Humpback Whale. I quickly call Peter & various others over, including Sue (the locally living sister of Dorset Birder John Down) & gave them directions to where I had seen it. But it had clearly gone down. After a long ten minute wait it resurfaced & was only 100 metres off shore, albeit we had to add another 100 metres of a dropping down field before the beach. But it was still close & it was on the surface & there was no time to waste to grab some photos.

Humpack Whale: The Herring Gull helps to give an idea of the size of the Humpback. Note, the scars along the side of the body

Humpback Whale: This is my third Whale species that I've seen in the UK, with three Northern Bottle-nosed Whales (two on Skye in August 98 and the Bournemouth Bay individual that subsequenlty died in Sep 2009) and two Minkes heading West along the Dorset coast at the end of a Portsmouth - Bilboa ferry trip in Aug 2000

Unfortunately, the next time it reappeared it was back about a half mile offshore again & kept reappearing in the same area over the the next 45 minutes, before we finally felt it had moved South towards Slapton again. Soon after we heard it was back off the central car park at Slapton agaIn so we headed South again.

22 Dec 16 - Happy Christmas 2016

Just a quick seasonal photo to wish all the readers of the Blog a Happy Christmas & good break leading up to the New Year. In case any of you think a photo of a Peacock Butterfly isn't particularly seasonal, then I took this in the sunshine at Studland's Brands Bay hide on 22 Dec with the iphone camera. Peacocks overwinter as adults & potentially can fly in any of the winter months if the weather is warm enough & there is some sunshine. The first one I saw in 2015 was only a quarter of a mile away at Greenlands Farm on 16 Jan 2015.

Peacock Butterfly: Brands Bay

But being honest, the weather wasn't that typical for the date. As I write this on 23 Dec, it has just started to rain & the wind is getting steadily stronger as Dorset sees the outer edges of Storm Barbara. A more seasonal December day.

18 Dec 16 - An Early Christmas Present (From The BOU)

This is the time of the year when the BOU often announce changes to the British List, but this year following the disbanding of the Taxonomic Sub Committee, I hadn't been expecting any interesting announcements. So I was a bit suprised to see an announcement that the BOU had added both the Dungeness Acadian Flycatcher & the Papa Westray Chestnut Bunting to the British List. With both being in Autumn 2015, I had been expecting both of these species to take a couple of years before a decision was made for either species. 

Acadian Flycatcher: Dungeness (22 Sep 15)

When news broke of an Empidonax Flycatcher at Dungeness, it didn't take me long to leave the house & I persuaded big Kent lister Marcus Lawson (who is now a Poole resident) to wait long enough to pick him up. I figured Marcus could help keep an eye on what people's thoughts were on the Flycatcher while I was driving. The good news was the first Birders didn't think it was an Alder Flycatcher, the only widely seen Empidonax Flycatcher in the UK & therefore it was a First for Britain. After checking the photos that evening & reading up on the identification, Acadian Flycatcher seemed the best option. This was confirmed within a day or two following review of the photos from the other side of the pond. I saw no reason why this shouldn't get onto the British List & ticked it at the time.

Chestnut Bunting: Papa Westray (28 Oct 15)

I took a more cautious approach with the Chestnut Bunting on Papa Westray. With a dubious record of eight previous individuals being rejected, then I wasn't immediately heading North even after the identification had been confirmed. However, after a bit of reading why the previous records had been rejected I was more tepmted to go. Six had been Spring/Summer records (an unexpected time of year) and the final two records were in September, which were considered to have been too early based upon movements through Beidaihi (North China) & Hong Kong. This was against a background of Chestnut Buntings being a regular cage Bird in those days. But the trade of Eastern Passerines is largely a thing of the past. The BOU report had said that a First Winter in October/November would be treated more favourably. This got me interested & I jumped when I saw an offer of a charter on the pager. This proved to be a great trip & is fully written up here. However, given the BOU's treatment of previous records, I decided to opt for pending the Chestnut Bunting. But now it had been added to the British List, it has been finally added to my British List taking me to 529 for (British & Ireland List) & 523 (British List). The Purple Swamphen & Dalmatian Pelican remain Pended for another rainy day (for the Swamphen & to avoid a likely removal for the latter species).