Making commitments in October is always a risk. But a Marinelife training course was being run at Ferrybridge & I decided to take the opportunity to complete the course locally: so that I can apply for Cetacean & Seabird surveys for Marinelife. But I was worried that something really good would turn up & either I would have to have a skip the course or spend the day worrying that the goodie would stay for another day. This time the Birding Gods were looking after me when a Grey Phalarope turned up at Ferrybridge on 6 Oct & quickly moved onto one of the small pools by the car park. Despite the good views, I couldn't justify driving to Weymouth to see it, having seen quite a few Grey Phalaropes over the years.
I headed down the following day for the course & checked the Southern end of the car park. There had been no news. But there were about six local toggers, none of which had made any effort to put the news out. But no surprise for the "I'm All Right Jack" toggers. Maybe they had put the news out on the local Whatsapp group, but if you aren't in that little clique, then you won't hear. Whatsapps is a really bad application as it has meant a lot of Bird news in Dorset is no longer broadcast in real time, apart to the local cliques: many of whom are not regular field Birders, but happy to twitch when others find them local Birds. The Grey Phalarope had flown out of view, but it had done that before & they were confident it would return. I headed down to the Dorset Wildlife Trust for the course, with a plan to have a look at lunchtime. Sure enough it was showing well at lunchtime, so I skipped the food in favour of the camera.
