I was up early as the weather conditions looked good on the weather forecast. However, it was very misty at dawn with visibility in the Swanage area around fifty metres. I knew it wouldn't be better at St Aldhelms, so decided to delay leaving the house until the visibility improved. Finally, around 09:30 the conditions looked a lot better & I was about to leave the house when Phil Saunders rang to say he had just found a Juv Red-backed Shrike in Pier Bottom Valley: this was definitely a major patch rarity with only six previous records for the St Aldhelms/Winspit/Seacombe Valley/Chapman's Pool area.
I made a few calls as I was getting ready to leave the house. A few minutes later, I arrived at the Renscombe Farm car park & walked fast to Pier Bottom Valley, with only a few quick scans of the fields as I passed them. As I walked down the valley, I could see Phil with his scope up & taking some photos with his mobile. The Red-backed Shrike was in the largest patch of scrub in the lower valley. Unfortunately, it had dropped out of view just before I arrived, but as Phil hadn't seen it leave that patch of scrub since he found it, then clearly it was just a case of waiting for it to pop up again. Within a few minutes, I saw it pop up in one of its favourite Elderberry bushes at the highest point of the scrub. It was good to have seen it so quickly as Phil had said it had been elusive while he was waiting for me to arrive.
Over the next few hours it settled into a pattern of perching in one of two Elderberry bushes, the original one & another one at the closest point in the scrub to the sea. It would then flycatch before returning to a perch. Sometimes it dropped onto the ground when it saw a large Beetle or Grasshopper. Despite showing well, we were hanging back at this stage from the scrub as we knew there would be other Birders who were on their way & we didn't want to disturb it.
I didn't think the day could get any better, until Phil shouted he was scoping a Vagrant Emperor. Having only seen one before, then this was suddenly even more interesting than the Red-backed Shrike. It was flying over the bushes at the very top of the valley. Unfortunately, Phil lost it before it stopped. We decided to leave the Red-backed Shrike & headed up the steep side of the valley to the top. We split up & I quickly bumped into it in flight & Phil very quickly picked it from my directions. We watched it in flight for the best part of a minute before it disappeared over the next field in the direction of the Marines Memorial. It was unclear if it was it was just moving through or was patrolling a regular route & we didn't stay to see if it would come back. Either way it will be a first record for the St Aldhelms patch.
Phil returned to the valley bottom to collect his scope & re-join the other locals. I stayed to check the bushes at the top of the valley which have always looked good for a Wryneck, but yet again, they failed me. I then moved down the slope to watch the scrub from above. This gave me better views of the higher Elderberry bush, whereas the others had the best views of the other Elderberry bush.
The previous St Aldhelms/Winspit/Seacombe Valley/Chapman's Pool records are:
- Chapman's Pool on 22 Aug 1962
- Chapel Field West at St Aldhelms on 15 Sep 1965
- Seacombe on 2 Oct 1968
- Winspit on 18 Sep 1972
- Seacombe on 26 Sep 2018
- Winspit on 12 Oct Sep 2021.
It's likely that there are much older records from the Seacombe/St Aldhelms/Winspit/Chapman's Pool area, especially during the period when Red-backed Shrikes bred in Dorset, but further investigation into the very early Bird Reports will be needed to uncover those records. However, this part of Dorset wasn't getting a lot of attention from Ornithologists around the start of the 20th Century. I need to acknowledge the help of my mate & St Aldhelms stalwart Steve Morrison in pulling together these records.
Normally, I'm happy to get some photos and then carry on Birding. However, today, it was a pleasant change to enjoy the social chat while we were waiting for Dorset's cycling Birder Pete Moore to arrive. Pete finally arrived as Phil & I were chasing the Vagrant Emperor. After that I spent a few hours sitting in the sun & waiting for the Red-backed Shrike to reappear back in the top Elderberry bush so I could try to get some better photos. These photos were the result of over five hours of effort.