3 Aug 24 - A Bonus Historic Isle Of Purbeck Year Tick

I'm currently having another attempt at cracking the 200 barrier on the Historic Isle of Purbeck Year List. I tried in 2022 and reached 195 with several easy late Autumn species left. However, I headed off to Indonesia in late Oct for seven weeks on two back-to-back Bird Tour Asia trips and a few extra days Birding on my own. Had I stayed, I would have easily passed the 200 target. This year I'm having another attempt at the 200 barrier.

When I prepare for a local Year List challenge, I work out a list of potential species, which get categorised as Definitely Will See, Probably Will See & Might See. This helps me to ensure I don't overlook a potentially easy to see species. The reality is the Might See could be realistically categorised as Unlikely To See. So, it is always nice when a Might See species turns up in the Historic Isle of Purbeck. This happened when a news broke that there was a Wood Sandpiper on the Brownsea lagoon. Unfortunately, it wasn't found to mid-afternoon & the news didn't get out till after the island closed. But realistically there wouldn't have been time to get on & see it that afternoon, had news broken within minutes of it being found.

I was up early in case there was some early news and one of DWT wardens, Nicki, posted some nice video on twitter about eight that morning. Soon after I was heading off for the ferry. As I got out of the car at Studland, I realised I had left the camera in the house. Annoying, but not the end of the world as it isn't a Photo Year List. I met Graham Armstrong on the quayside for the Brownsea volunteers boat. The Wood Sandpiper was showing well right in front of the hide as Graham & I reached the Avocet hide: job done.

Wood Sandpiper: It was right outside the Avocet hide when I took this picture & I could only just get a picture with all of it in on the vidscope TV screen. This is only the second Wood Sandpiper in about the last fifteen years on the Brownsea Lagoon, so it wasn't a species I expected to see there. This took me to 177 & Ring-necked Parakeet heard for the year & keeps me on track to reach 200

Wood Sandpipers are a species that should be easy to see in Poole Harbour, with individuals occurring at both Swineham & Lytchett Bay annually. But the Historic Isle of Purbeck boundary stops at the River Frome & Swineham is on the wrong side of the boundary. The only chance of seeing a Wood Sandpiper in this area is if you are on a Birds of Poole Harbour Bird boat & one flies off from Swineham and circles over the Arne Marshes. This happened in 2022, resulting in only my fourth Isle of Purbeck record.

The Drinker: Time for a celebratory drink: well not this type. This was photographed in the hide, before being relocated to a more sensible location outside

As it turned out, a couple of the regular volunteers had other commitments & were not available to come over to Brownsea. So, it was useful that I could stick around for the rest of the day to help the other volunteers out.