20 Apr 26 - Signs Of Spring Part 12 - Spring Pied Flycatchers

I had enjoyed a lovely long morning walking around the St Aldhelms patch. The weather was perhaps a bit too good for a decent fall, but I had managed to find five Wheatears, two Whinchats and a male Redstart. However, I hadn't seen any migrant Warblers, ignoring the reasonable numbers of Whitethroats and a Chiffchaff that are on territory. Additionally, there was a trickle of all three Hirundines species. By early-afternoon I was back at the car and heading home. However, there were still a few other sites that I've been keeping an eye on where I pull the car over to have a quick scan. One of them is the trees at the top of the Seacombe Valley, where I was surprised to see what looked like a couple of Flycatchers feeding in the trees. I got the scope out to have a better look. They turned out to be two male and one female Pied Flycatcher. It's quite ironic that after walking for over five miles around the St Aldhelms patch, that I found the best Bird whilst sitting in the car.

Pied Flycatcher: Male

Pied Flycatcher: A different male. This individual looks to be a first Summer male give the number of brown feathers in the wing

Pied Flycatcher: Male. The second male

Pied Flycatcher: Male

I popped some news out to the local Birders, before heading home for a late lunch. Later that afternoon, I returned with the camera. The Pied Flycatchers were very approachable, especially the males. I then realised there was a second female present.

Pied Flycatcher: Female

Pied Flycatcher: Female

Pied Flycatcher: Female. They spend a lot of time looking for their next snack

Spring Pied Flycatchers are always erratic in the Isle of Purbeck and I would have been happy finding one. So, finding four was a real treat, especially, as I've not heard of any other Dorset locations this Spring, where there has been more than one seen at a time.

13 Apr 26 - Signs Of Spring Part 11 - Green-veined White

The good weather this Spring has been for early dates for a number of Butterfly species. So, I wasn't surprised to see this early Green-veined White.

Green-veined White

13 Apr 26 - Bearded Tits Upstage The Star Turn

On the 17 March, a Bluethroat was found at Swineham just before dusk by local Birders who were hoping to see a Bittern or two depart Eastwards from the Swineham reedbed. It would have been tight for me to get there in time to see it and as it was just outside of the Isle of Purbeck boundary, there was no burning reason to try to get there before dark. It was looked for the next day with no joy: c'est la vie. We all assumed it was a passing one day migrant as Swineham is fairly well watched, especially in the Bittern season. Therefore, it was a big surprise when it was refound on 11 April.

Male Red-spotted Bluethroat: No mealworms were harmed for these photos

I left it a couple of days before I made the effort to get there for the early morning. I joined a group of about six Birders & toggers at the corner overlooking Swineham Point. It had been seen a few times already and after a fifteen minute wait, it reappeared in a bare tree about thirty metres away. I saw it a couple of times before it stopped showing after 08:30. Other visiting Birders and toggers were going past us to look for it on the path. When I finally decided to try the path, there was a queue just to get to a viewing position to see where it was showing. It turns out that it was being enticed onto the path by togger mealworms and by the end of the month, it must have been addicted to them.

Male Red-spotted Bluethroat

Given I wasn't going to wait in the queue for an hour to get to a viewing position, I decided to check out the rest of the Swineham riverbank path. I hadn't even reached the start of the riverbank path, when I saw a couple of pairs of Bearded Tits. There was clearly a territorial dispute going on with the two males keen to sit up and show their presence. Eventually, the Easterly pair headed towards the Point and the other pair disappeared back into the reeds. It was my best view of Bearded Tits for many years, given they were only about fifteen metres from the footpath.

Bearded Tit: Male. This is the name it had when I got my first Bird book and I can see not reason for adopting its trendy new name, after all "A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Bearded Tit: Male

Bearded Tit: Male

Bearded Tit: Male

Bearded Tit: Female. The Females didn't show for long

6 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - A Late Night Treat

We had enjoyed a third day around the Antarctic Sound and Northern Weddell Sea. I had been on a scenic flight around some icebergs and managed to get some photos of my third Emperor Penguin. In the afternoon, there had been a zodiac cruise off Dundee Island. It all helped to make up for the ice blocking any thoughts of heading South into the Weddell Sea to get within flying range of the Snow Hill Island Emperor colony. The ship laid on a barbeque that evening on the upper deck, albeit I decided eating my food in the warmth of the restaurant was a better idea. I was heading off to bed about ten, when there was a ship's announcement that the wildlife gods had invited a pod of at least thirteen Type B Large Orcas to join us. The light wasn't fantastic, but we had an excellent show over the next twenty minutes.

Orca Type B (Large): Initially, they weren't close. The large horizontal patch behind the eye confirmed the Orca Ecotype as Type B (Large) which are also known as Pack Ice Orca

Orca Type B (Large): A couple of large-finned males

Orca Type B (Large): One of the two calves that I saw in the pod

Orca Type B (Large): A more modest female fin

Orca Type B (Large): These individuals show a bit of variation in the pale saddle markings

Orca Type B (Large): This male has a well-marked saddle

Orca Type B (Large): Finally, they came closer to the ship

Orca Type B (Large)

Orca Type B (Large): A good view of the horizontal markings behind the head

Orca Type B (Large): Another calf photo

Orca Type B (Large)

Orca Type B (Large)

Orca Type B (Large): Finally, a bit of spy-hopping as the light was going

They moved off soon after these close encounters. It was time for bed.

Adelie Penguin: These Adelie Penguins were wisely keeping out of the water

We were in sight of Rosamel Island as I headed off to bed

6 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - A Photogenic Emperor Penguin

After completing the last of the scenic flights in the Northern Weddell Sea, the ship had tried to get to Brown Bluff for a zodiac landing. However, the sea ice had been too heavy to land, which in hindsight was a bit of luck for everybody. We were heading back towards the Petrel base area for a zodiac cruise. I think I was catching up with some lost sleep after lunch when there was an announcement that my third Emperor Penguin had been spotted. I was quickly heading up to the bridge. I knew the expedition staff on the bridge were able to see the Emperor Penguin and that was the obvious location to head for. There was an expanse of broken ice ahead of the ship, with an Emperor Penguin lying on one of the larger pieces of ice. It wasn't close, but the main thing was it looked unfussed about Ortelius appearing.

Emperor Penguin: It was good to finally get the chance for some photos. However, I didn't know how long the opportunity would last and as it was in front of the ship, I didn't want to waste the opportunity and lose another minute or so to get back down to the forward-facing deck 6, with the additional risk that many of the passengers would have beaten me to the best viewing positions. Therefore, I stuck to my place on the bridge, albeit it has meant the photos were all taken through the bridge window

Emperor Penguin: A closer crop of the last photo

Passengers on the front deck watching the Emperor Penguin: It's on the far ice floe in the top right hand corner of the photo

Emperor Penguin with an Adelie Penguin: This Adelie Penguin decided to photobomb the Emperor Penguin to see what all the fuss was about

Emperor Penguin with an Adelie Penguin: The Adelie Penguin was clearly nonplussed with the Emperor Penguin and just continued past

Emperor Penguin with an Adelie Penguin: This shows how large Emperor Penguins are. Adelie Penguins average about twenty-eight inches height, compared to forty-five inches for an Emperor Penguin. It's a real shame we didn't reach the Snow Hill Island colony, as it would really have shown us how tall they are

Emperor Penguin: That's another couple of inches

Emperor Penguin: They breed in scattered colonies on the Antarctic continent edge and up to one hundred and thirty miles from the open sea, with the males looking after the eggs and young chicks through the worst of the Antarctic Winter. Out of the breeding season they are often around the edge of ice pack

Emperor Penguin: Soon after this photo was taken, the Emperor Penguin decided to get into the water and we quickly lost it. Just about everybody on the ship would have slept better than evening

Finally, we reached a suitable area near the Petrel base and the Expedition staff prepared for a zodiac cruise.

The ship is very good at getting the zodiacs quickly into the water

A group ready to leave: There is no order for getting into the zodiacs, apart from the Chinese passengers had dedicated zodiacs so that they had a zodiac driver or translator with them. My preference is to stand aside on zodiac cruises if the next zodiac is driven by one of the ship's crew. While they were generally better zodiac handlers, they didn't have the same wildlife knowledge as the Expedition staff

We quickly left Ortelius in the distance

A zodiac level iceberg

The zodiacs were strung out across the water

Adelie Penguin: I had decided against taking the proper camera, so had to make do with photos with my old IPhone

Antarctic Shag: This is now treated as a subspecies of Imperial Shag

Finally, we headed back towards the ship. It was time for a hot drink.

These newly weds kept us amused in Antarctica: Once a day they would appear in all their wedding finery for another prolonged set of cold photos. I think the bride would have gone ashore in her wedding dress, if she thought she could have got away with it. But sensible clothing and safety ashore meant that wouldn't be allowed

We had a barbeque that evening on deck, albeit I decided to grab my food and head back to the warmth of the restaurant. Just as I was planning on heading to bed about ten, we were given a shout that the wildlife gods were smiling on us again. I will cover this final treat in the next Blog Post.

8 Apr - Signs Of Spring Part 9 - My Earliest UK Damselfly

I was pleased to see my earliest ever two UK Damselfly on Brownsea, both of which were Large Red Damselflies. The first Dragonfly transect took place on the DWT Brownsea reserve during the day and it recorded thirty-seven Large Red Damselflies.

Large Red Damselfly

8 Apr 26 - Signs Of Spring Part 8 - Some Early Ducklings

On of the great things about Spring is seeing the next generation of Birds. I had seen my first group of five Mallard ducklings with mum on Brownsea on 1 Apr, however, I didn't manage to get any photos. A week later, this female Mallard wandered along the main National Trust path next to the DWT gazebo. There were eighteen ducklings, albeit I only managed to fit the first fifteen into this photo. Hopefully, these will be the first of many chicks on the Brownsea reserve this year.

Mallard with fifteen of her ducklings: The others had better learn to keep up, if they don't want a Great Black-backed Gull to have an easy meal