Birding Poole Harbour & Beyond: 9 Nov 24 - An Overdue Patch Pallas's Warbler

24 Nov 2024

9 Nov 24 - An Overdue Patch Pallas's Warbler

Having been out a lot locally with little success in recent days during a period of grey, overcast skies and light winds, I decided I needed a lie-in and time to catch up with a lot of overdue tasks. The Purbeck coast had been hard work in this period, despite the daily updates of Yellow-browed Warblers and Pallas's Warblers at Portland. But a lie-in is always a risky decision when fellow St Aldhelms patch Birder, Phil Saunders, might be out at the weekend. His first call was for a Ringtail Hen Harrier, which is an erratic species which generally only appears on two or three days a year. An hour later, there was another call for a Siberian Chiffchaff. I've not seen one at St Aldhelms, but I have seen one on the patch in Winspit. On both occasions, Phil failed to distract tempted from my overdue paperwork & other jobs, before my plan to head out to Studland.

Phil's final call was at 11:45, when he rang to say he was watching a showy Pallas's Warbler in The Garden. This isn't a garden, but the highest vegetated ledge at St Aldhelms. It got its name as it was a ledge that Billy Winspit, whose real name was William Bower, cultivated as a garden back in the fifties & sixties. Billy was a quarryman who owned the cottage that was closest to the sea in Winspit up to his death in 1966. Before he retired he worked at Trev's Quarry on St Aldhelms. Albeit, in those days, the Quarry was owned by Trev's father, while Trev was still learning his stonemason skills. I guess it was easy to pop into The Garden if he took the coastal route back to his cottage from the Quarry. There is a photo in the excellent book, Purbeck Stone, that Trev wrote a few years ago of Billy sitting in his cottage. I'm sure every local Birder who has spent time in Winspit, would have dreamt about owning the cottage. But if it came on the market again, the cottage and its extensive real garden, would have a two to three million pound price tag. A long way off the price that would have been paid for the cottage when Billy died.

The Garden from the normal Eastern viewpoint, which is one of my regular seawatching positions

Another view of The Garden from the Western viewpoint

Anyway back to 2024. I passed the message about the Pallas's Warbler to a few of the locals as I headed out of the door. Sometimes, Birds will stick in The Garden for the day, but many others quickly work their way up to the bushes on the main ledge, Quarry Ledge, before the head inland. With this risk, I was intent on getting there as quick as possible, as it would probably be my only chance of a Pallas's Warbler for my Isle of Purbeck Year List. I checked with Phil as I was heading past Trev's Quarry, but he said he had lost it when he was putting the news out & hadn't seen it since. With the negative news, I had a quick look at the bushes on Quarry Ledge: it wasn't there. Then I tried pishing at a viewpoint over the Western edge of The Garden. No sign, but I did get a phone call from Phil to say it was on view at the usual seawatching viewpoint at the Eastern edge. Two minutes later, I arrived & within another thirty seconds, it had popped up. It was certainly lived up to its showy reputation as it bounced around on the tops of bushes like a Firecrest on speed. It was working along the whole of the bushes in The Garden, but due to the steep grassy cliff top, it is only possible to see about half of The Garden: the closest edge of the ledge is hidden from view, as is the Western third. Still no complaints as this energetic stripey bundle of fun was working its way towards the big Sycamore closest to us. What was particularly nice was to be able to look down on a Pallas's Warbler that was on a ledge twenty metres below over viewpoint. A nice change from staring up into tree tops to try & see the lemon yellow crownstripe & rump.