22 Oct 25 - Birch Shieldbug

I saw this Birch Shieldbug by the DWT villa. Birch Shieldbugs are a medium-sized Shieldbug with dark red-brown and black over most of the wing cases. It is a common and widespread species that occurs in parks, gardens, mature hedgerows and woodland.

Birch Shieldbug: Adult

22 Oct 25 - Brownsea Fly Agaric

It's that time of year when the Fungi stalks appear in the leaf litter or grass. During the rest of the year, the Fungi grows underground as it breaks up dead vegetation. I know very little about Fungi and haven't managed to identify more than a handful of species. One of the species I do know is Fly Agaric. This is a common and easily-identifiable species on woodland floors.

Fly Agaric: This Fly Agaric was just appearing above ground. I've no idea about the identity of the neighbouring orange-brown species. Brownsea (30 Oct 24)

One of the DWT wardens, Nicki, said that it had been a good Autumn for Fungi on Brownsea and many stalks were larger than normal.

Fly Agaric: This large Fly Agaric was about five inches across

A side view of the same Fly Agaric

2 Oct 25 - Watching My Apples?

Late afternoon I nipped into my garden and soon after a Ring-necked Parakeet was flying around and it landed in my neighbour's conifer. Five minutes later, it was in another garden's tree and goading me to take some pictures. Finally, I gave in and grabbed the camera.

Ring-necked Parakeet

This is one of the last of the Studland Parakeets which were released by the ex-publican of the Bankes Arms, who released about a dozen or so individuals when he left the area in the early 1990s. Most of the small, stable population were shot on instruction of the Studland golf course a couple of years ago.

Ring-necked Parakeet: Is it eyeing up the apples in my garden?

Will this be the next species to die out in the Isle of Purbeck?

23 Sep 25 - Standing To Attention

As I walked back from Pier Bottom Valley, after finding a Little Stint at St Aldhelms (see the last Blog Post), I noticed this Wheatear sitting on a fence post. It looked remarkably upright. It flew a couple of posts, but again it was remarkably upright. I took this photo on the second fence post.

Wheatear

At the time I was wondering if it was a Greenland Wheatear, given it had such an upright posture. This subspecies is generally larger and bulkier. However, without measurements, it's not going to be possible to figure this out. Greenland Wheatears are described as having a more orangey wash to the underparts. So, perhaps it was just a regular Wheatear, which was looking more upright due to how it was sitting on the edge of the posts.

23 Sep 25 - Migrants Can Always Astound You

I'm sure many patch Birders will think that they have a reasonable idea of what they are likely to see on their patch at a particular time of year and weather conditions. The visit to St Aldhelms this morning started off fairly normally. Light North Easterlies and dry, sunny conditions which are likely to produce some migrants. Had I been out from half-light, then I would have seen more Chiffchaffs piling off the Head than I saw when I arrived about eight: c'est la vie. A couple of Wheatears in the field weren't a surprise given the conditions. There were some Swallows and a few Martins moving East as expected. Linnets were everywhere and I put a conservative total of seven hundred and fifty plus down in the notebook. I bumped into a couple of visiting Birders who were staying in the coastguard cottages. I mentioned to keep an eye out for Merlins as they should be in by now. Three minutes after they drove off, my first Merlin of the Autumn appeared to terrorise the Linnets. I wasn't doing a bad job of predicting what I was likely to see this morning.

Rather than carry on out to the Coastguards and Quarry Ledge, I decided to wander down Pier Bottom Valley. Now I was close to the coast and the Hirundines were, as expected, piling through at around fifty a minute. At the bottom, I decided to have a look at the two small pools of water that were formed behind mud slips. I was keen to see if I could find a way down to them to see what Dragonflies were around the pools. Fresh water is scarce at St Aldhelms and so this is the best location for breeding Dragonflies. I had wanted to check these pools out earlier in the Summer, but there was a female Mallard with her young family on every visit. I decided to leave the pools for the Autumn, as it's the only place the Mallard pair have to breed on the St Aldhelms.

The lower pool: It's narrow and not much more than fifteen metres long with a three to four metre patch of mud at the near end. Getting down to it is very tricky given it's all soft mud that has slipped on multiple occasions

I headed to overlook the lower pool first. I was about eighty metres from the pool and I could see a small brown-backed Bird, with very clean white underparts. It's rare that I can't get a likely name to something I see, but on this occasion, I was struggling. Snow Bunting popped into my head, but that wasn't right. But there again I couldn't come up with anything else better after the first view. I wished I had brought the scope, but then I wouldn't have considered trying to get down to the pools with the scope and tripod.

There was a distant compact brown and white Bird on the lower pool: I couldn't figure it out at first. But there again with only a handful of regular Waders expected at St Aldhelms, a small Wader wasn't the obvious consideration: especially as I couldn't see the bill. Typically, only Oystercatcher, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Common Sandpiper and Snipe can be expected in the year, aside from any seawatching flybys. I suspect Woodcock winter in small numbers, but I'm yet to confirm where they roost during the day

I got a few metres closer and lifted the camera. Zooming the photos through the camera, solved the problem: it looked like a Little Stint. That brought a new thought: what the hell is a Little Stint doing on a three metre patch on mud on a small pool at St Aldhelms. I checked a few more of the first photos and found one where I could see the bill, as well as, the tramlines. No wonder I was initially struggling to put a name to it. I only expect to see two or three species of Waders along the shoreline or in the fields in a typical year. The rest are seen flying over the site or on Spring seawatches. I was pretty sure it was on the patch list. When I checked later, the only record was a single seawatch individual flying East in May 1993. Steve Morrison later confirmed that it was a presumed Little Stint, as he hadn't been able to categorically rule out a Temminck's Stint. However, given the scarcity of Temminck's Stints in Dorset, it was almost certainly a Little Stint.

Little Stint: With only one previous record and rarely seeing more than a handful of Wader species on the ground in a year, it wasn't unreasonable to overlook a small Wader as a possibility

Little Stint: Another photo from the lower pool

I grabbed some more ropy photos due to the range and then found I had a phone signal. I put the news out to Phil Saunders and a few other locals. Sadly, work stopping Phil dashing down and none of the other South Purbeck Birders were able to get down. I looked again and it had disappeared. It had already walked out of view once, before returning. But five minutes later it hadn't reappeared. I was getting cold in the shade of the head and decided to move back up the hill and check the upper pool from another viewpoint, in case it had moved. This is a larger pool with more muddy edges. I could now see both pools and it wasn't on view on either pool.

The upper pool: Obviously, I didn't try to get closer once I saw it was occupied, so I still haven't got down to check the Darters there. After Portland had breeding Red-veined Darters, I did wonder if there could be any on the Pier Bottom pools. I could see a Migrant Hawker patrolling the upper pool and later some Darters. Presumably, they were the regular Common Darters. I will try to check the pools if I can before we get more rain: when it's best to avoid the pools, because of the risks of a landslip

After fifteen minutes, it flew up from the lower pool, circled a few times and landed at the back of the upper pool. I wasn't any closer, but at least I had a reasonable and warmer viewpoint. By this time, I had heard Phil Bentley was at St Aldhelms and he was on his way to join me. I gave him some directions and tried to get some better photos. Unfortunately, it did another disappearing trick while I wasn't watching and it never reappeared. Perhaps it just wandered behind a tussock or into the reed edge and fell asleep. I spent the best part of an hour watching the pools with Phil. Then I had a final look from the top of Emmets Hill on the way back to the car. This provided a different angle onto the pools, but there were still some parts of the pools, I couldn't see.

The Little Stint dropped onto the larger expanse of mud at the back of the larger pool

Little Stint: It was quite obviously a Juv Little Stint with those tramlines and the pectoral patches. In some of the initial photos, the lower legs looked pale, due to drying mud on them

Checking later with Steve Morrison, this is the first record of a confirmed Little Stint for the St Aldhelms/Winspit patch, albeit his May 1993 record of a Stint sp. was most likely the first record. This was certainly not what I had predicted for the day. Isn't patch Birding brilliant on days like this.

20 Aug 25 - A Nice Brownsea Pyralid

The DWT team ran their Moth trap overnight before my normal volunteering on the Brownsea reserve. Taise, one of the DWT team, was showing the Moths off to the public. This Pyralid Moth caught my eye as I didn't recognise it. Talking to one of the wardens, Nicki, later in the day provided the name: Migrant Sable (Diasemiopsis ramburialis). It is a scarce migrant species which has been encountered mainly on the South Coast between Jun and Oct. The Dorset Moths website mentions twenty-one records up to 2006, with a photo of one in 2022. There will be more Dorset records that haven't made it onto the website. But it still looks like a nice migrant record and a Moth Tick for me.

Migrant Sable

9 Aug 25 - A Garden Shieldbug Tick

While doing some decorating work on the house, I spotted a Shieldbug in the conservatory. I couldn't get a name to it and suspected it was a species I hadn't seen. Subsequent checking of the excellent Shieldbugs and Squashbugs of the British Isles by Evans and Edmondson suggests this is the Tortoise Bug Eurygaster testudinaria. It wouldn't be that surprising to see a new Shieldbug, as this was only the eleventh species that I've seen out of thirty-five species covered by the field guide. I've never gone out to specifically look for Shieldbugs, but I have tried to identify those that I've seen.

Tortoise Bug

There are two similar species of Tortoise Bugs. This species and much rarer Scarce Tortoise Bug Eurygaster maura. Identification looks tricky between the two species. One of the features is the outer edges of the head is parallel with the edges of the pronotum on Scarce Tortoise Bug. Additionally, the length of the second segment of the antenna is about twice as long as the third segment on Scarce Tortoise Bug, whereas it is only slightly longer on Tortoise Bug. On this basis and after looking at photos online, I think this is the commoner Tortoise Bug. However, the books suggest that dissection might be the only way to be certain. I prefer to release Insects rather than to kill them to be one hundred percent certain with their identification. Thanks to Phil Saunders for confirmation on the ID.

8 Aug 25 - A Visiting Chimney Pot Gull

For a number of years, I suspected there was a pair of locally breeding Herring Gulls near my house, but the next wasn't obvious. Last year a near neighbour pointed out the nest site which I can't see from my house or garden. This year they were clearly breeding again and were successful as I've seen a youngster around the rooftops. Finally, it popped onto my conservatory to introduce itself.

IPhone photo of Juv Herring Gull

5 Aug 25 - I Love This Time Of Year

I do love this time of year, as it's a time to make some new friends. Many of the local breeding Passerines, seem to feed the youngsters for a few days before abandoning them. The local Robin pair are typical. This year there are two young Robins around and after a bit of territorial squabbling, one seems to have taken control of my back garden. It was initially shy, but by late July would come closer as I was doing a bit of gardening.

IPhone Robin photo

It's grown in confidence with me and now flies into the area close to my conservatory when it sees me, as it knows I will be putting some food out for it. It will quite happily sit a couple of feet above me as I put some food out for it on a chosen rock.

A closer crop

Normally, come the Autumn the youngsters will be driven out of the territory by the dominate pair. However, as the adult Robins haven't been coming in much to my garden this year, it would be great if this uber-friendly Robin was to be allowed to stick around. It will be easy to tell given it's behaviour.

19 Jul 25 - Meet Sid: My New Lodger

As I looked out of the living room window, I saw that the water surface in my front garden pond was disturbed. I couldn't see what was causing the disturbance as I was looking through a large clump of Red Valerian flowers. After moving, I was shocked to see there was a Snake in the water, as I had assumed it was probably one of local Robins or House Sparrows. Before I saw it properly, I decided it was a Grass Snake, as they are the regular UK Snake that hunts in ponds and lakes. My identification was confirmed when I stepped outside.

Grass Snake: Hissing Sid was a superb and unexpected garden tick

Grass Snake: The yellow and black patches behind the head identified Sid as a Grass Snake

Grass Snake

Grass Snake: Checking out the air with its tongue

Grass Snake: Sid was about fifteen inches long, so still quite a young Snake. A large adult can be over four foot long

Grass Snake

Grass Snake

Grass Snake

Eventually, Sid realised I was there and diving into the rockery edging to the pond. It seemed to know that there was space behind the rockery stones for it to comfortably fit in and it makes me wonder how long it has been around.

It's not a large pond

I knew there were a couple of Smooth Newts in this pond when I looked a week earlier. I had seen one while Sid was in the pond, but I was worried that Sid might have already caught the other individual. With Sid out of the way, I quickly caught both Smooth Newts and I couldn't find any more individuals. Sid might not be impressed with me moving the Smooth Newts to my larger back garden pond. This already has a population of Smooth Newts and therefore I knew the pond would be suitable to rehome them. I'm sure they will be safe there, as Sid would have a long trip over pavements to stumble on my back garden.

Relocating one of the Smooth Newts

9 Jul 25 - The Brownsea Wave Machine

One of the Physics lessons that I can remember from school days, involved creating wave ripples from dropping a single drop of water into a large dish of water. It would have been more fun if we had had this little late brood Black-headed Gull to generate the ripples.

Black-headed Gull: Chick. Most of the Black-headed Gull chicks had fledged, but there were still a few late broods from failed pairs or maybe first time breeding pairs

Black-headed Gull: Chick. The Black-headed Gull chicks are far happier to wander than the Tern chicks. I'm surprised more don't get grabbed by the local Great Black-backed Gulls

Black-headed Gull: Chick

Black-headed Gull: Chick. Finally, it's got the hang of making a perfect ripple

2 Jul 25 - A Brownsea Spoony

There were four Spoonbills on the lagoon on my regular DWT Brownsea volunteering visit on 25 June. They had been seen earlier in the Summer in other locations around Poole Harbour, but it was the first time I had seen them on the lagoon. I could see they all looked like First Summer individuals with dull pinky-grey bills and black markings in the wing tips. One was colour-ringed, but it was too far away to read the ring number. They were still present on the next visit at the start of July and they were actively feeding on the lagoon. I saw one walk between the Tern hide and the Sandwich Tern islands. So, it would have been really close, if I hadn't had been in the Avocet hide. Naturally, it was well out into the lagoon, by the time I reached the Tern hide.

Spoonbill

Unfortunately, this wasn't the colour-ringed individual. However, that Spoonbill was close enough to read its ring number: NHB9. This looked like a Dutch colour-ringed scheme to me.

Spoonbill: I wonder if this is also a Dutch individual

Local Birder, Garry Hayman had already seen and reported this individual from Middlebere and received confirmation that it was from the Dutch ringing scheme. It was ringed on Schiermonnikoog Island, very close to the Dutch - German border:

• 20 Jun 24 - Schiermonnikoog Island, Holland - Ringed as a chick

• 25 Oct 24 - Brownsea, Poole Harbour

• 1 Nov 24 - Brownsea, Poole Harbour

• 9 Nov 24 - Holes Bay, Poole Harbour

• 24 Dec 24 - Arne, Poole Harbour

• 18 Jan 25 - Poole Harbour

• 20 Jun 25 - Middlebere, Poole Harbour.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to tell the origin of the other three Spoonbills. Some of the autumnal and wintering individuals may be from the Norfolk colony. However, most of these aren't colour-ringed and so that is pure speculation. What we can prove if most of the colour-ringed individuals are Dutch.

1 Jul 25 - A Wildlife Addiction - Other Wildlife Books

The previous Blog Post discussed some of the books I've been tweeting on Bluesky about, in response to a tweet from Martin Wood a few weeks ago. That Blog Post was focused on the Bird books in my library. In this Blog Post, I will look at some of the other wildlife books in my library.

The Bluesky Tweet that started everything: This included the text "Nature book challenge. A book per day, in no particular order, until you've shared all of the best nature, environment and conservation books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers!"

Before I got into Birds at the start of my teens, I had already been interested in Frogs and Butterflies for several years. Finally, that expanded to include other Amphibians and Reptiles, when I finally saw a few more species beyond Common Frog.

My Amphibians and Reptile section has never got beyond this book: These days I've found that photos and internet searches are usually sufficient to identify a reasonable number of the Amphibians and Reptiles that I've seen abroad. Consequentially, I've never got around to look for an up to date book

My Collins Butterfly guide to the UK & Europe: I've not bought any of the recent Butterfly books for the UK & Europe, as there are plenty of good resources online for many species and I'm not spending enough time in Europe to justify buying better books

Another wildlife group that I became interested in about the same time that I got interested in Birds were Mammals. I've now found this really good Mammal handbook for the UK.

Mammals of the British Isles Handbook

Mammals are one of the groups that I've tried to identify on foreign trips, but with varying results depending on the country. One of my first trips outside of the Western Palearctic was to Kenya in 1987. I returned three years later as part of a four month African trip, visiting Kenya, Rwanda, a corner of Zaire, Uganda, Madagascar and Southern Africa. We had a chance to identify African Mammals as there were these good in their day books on African Mammals. But we had nothing on the Madagascan Lemurs where we had to rely on the researchers we met and some of the first local guides, they were training.

My early African field guides: The taxonomy was always a bit inconsistent in these and similar books, but at least they were generally good enough to get a name to the species seen

If this guide had been available in 1990, it would have spurred us on to look for more Lemurs

The reality is there are still a number of countries I've visited in recent years, where there still isn't a good Mammal field guide. But times have moved on and there is now the Handbook of the Mammals of the World. The only problem is I cannot justify spending the money to buy the eight volumes. But now there is a concise budget version of all the Mammal species, along with range maps.

The Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World: One of the things I might do at some point in the future, is to go back through all my foreign Mammal sightings, now I have this comprehensive checklist

In the late 90s, the Poole Harbour Birders started the first of five annual ferry trips from Portsmouth to Bilboa through the Bay of Biscay. The first was designed for Seabirds and Cetaceans. I returned annually for the Cetaceans, with the Seabirds being a bonus. I had seen a few Cetaceans by this point, but we had struggled on foreign trips due to the lack of a decent Cetacean guide. So, it was a really breath of fresh air when Mark Carwardine published this excellent Cetacean guide, which was packed with lots of easily readable information. I was starting to get hooked on Cetaceans.

Carwardine's book helped to get me hooked on Cetaceans

Anybody who has regularly read my Blog Posts, will realise that I have a strong passion for Cetaceans, which I consider to be 'Honorary Penguins". My interest in Cetaceans kicked up a couple of notches during the seven week expedition trip from Ushuaia to Holland via South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, Ascension Island and Cape Verde. I discovered the Marine Mammals of the World handbook in the Plancius's library and immediately bought it when I returned home. I now have the digital version on my laptop and mobile. While the taxonomy has moved on in the last decade for a handful of species, it is still by far the best Cetacean guide in my opinion. There are newer pocket field guides, but they quickly flounder on some of the less common species of Cetacean.

Marine Mammals of the World: This also covers all the Pinnipeds, Manatees, Sea Otter & Polar Bear

In my early days at Southampton University, some of the Birders tried to get into Moths. This was hard work in those early days, as my two volume guide, was crap. However, things picked up when we bumped into John Chainey, who was living in Brockenhurst in those days. John has an amazing knowledge of Moths and helped get me started on Moths. Sadly, I'm rusty now I don't get the time to run my Moth trap. All this was helped by the first of the decent Moth books.

An early edition of Skinner's revolutionary Moth book

This book made Pyralids about the only Micro Moths I could attempt when I ran my Moth trap in the mid-80s

The Manley photo guide also covers all the UK Butterflies, as well as, a lot of caterpillars of both Moths and Butterflies

These two volumes with Richard Lewington's illustrations, along with some excellent online websites, have made Moths a lot easier to identify: However, none of these guides have helped to tackle the pain of a pre-dawn alarm clock to beat the local Birds to the Moths which didn't end up in the trap

About twenty years ago, I bought this book to try to get into Dragonflies. It is still a decent field guide, albeit the ranges will be out of date these days and some of the newer established species aren't covered.

The Dragonflies of Great Britain and Ireland: This was a good start into Dragonflies

More recent Dragonfly guides: These are all old editions now, but still perfectly adequate for identification, albeit the distribution will now be dated. The first guide also has an excellent large section of key Dragonflies sites to visit. This book helped me plan how to see the last of the British Dragonflies in a recent Scottish trip

As I've seen new Insect field guides published, I've tried to buy them, so I had a better chance of identifying species I bump into. There are still some major insect groups that still need a good book, starting with a field guide to UK Wasps. A Lewington illustrated book would be fantastic.

This excellent Shieldbug book is well worth checking out

Lewington's plates on Bees, along with some excellent text by Steven Falk, has made Bee identification a lot easier

This is a good Grasshopper and Cricket guide

A useful book for Dorset residents

Hoverflies are still a project waiting to start

Another strand of Bird and Wildlife books that I've enjoyed reading have been the travel diaries of some of the early naturalists. Everybody would immediately think of Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle. Personally, I found that a hard read.

Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle

I enjoyed the Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace a lot more. Not only was it an easier book to read, it also covers how he developed his ideas on evolution. It was only when he sent a write up of these ideas to Darwin, that Darwin rushed to write up his own observations on this topic, that he had avoided doing for many years. Both published their ideas at the same Royal Society meeting. Sadly, Wallace didn't have the same standing as Darwin in the class system at the time and today, most UK schoolkids have heard about Darwin, whilst few have heard of Wallace.

Wallace's Malay Archipelago

I managed to find a few other Victorian explorer travel books over the years. Any Birder who has travelled to Borneo will have heard of Charles Lowe and his gorgeous Hose's Broadbill: which I've been lucky enough to see in Sabah. This is his travel diary.

Hose's travel diary: He is best known this day for Hose's Broadbill and Black Oriole (Oriolus hosii)

The next book is a modern twist of those old Victorian explorer's travel books. It is a section of articles from researchers based upon Marion Island. While the Victorians killed Birds and Insects in the name of science, this book includes sections on the largest successful feral Cat eradication program and how the Wildlife recovered following their removal.

Pain Forms the Character: A book I still need to find the time to sit down and read

Been brought up on the Kent-London borders close to the River Thames, every now and then the name Jeffery Harrison cropped up. He was responsible for setting up the Sevenoaks Nature Reserve, but also was involved in the campaign to clean up the River Thames and with Peter Grant, he documented how the Wildlife returned. Sadly, Thames Water is doing its best to create the conditions for the sequel to this book.

The Thames Transformed by Jeffery Harrison and Peter Grant

I will end this Blog Post with another of my all-time favourite Bird and Wildlife books. Kakapo Country describes the early work to stop the enigmatic Kakapo from becoming extinct. But as well as describing the start of the recovery program, it looks at many of the other endemic Birds, along with other classic New Zealand species like the Weta and the habitats. It only took me a couple of hours to re-read the book last month, as the text is full of the same lovely paintings as are shown on the front cover.

Kakapo Country

I've enjoyed tweeting on Bluesky about some of the interesting books in my library and being able to expand on some of the reasons I selected those books in the last two Blog Posts. These are still only a subset of the library. One of the nice benefits has been these tweets have encouraged me to pull some of the non-identification guides off the book shelves and re-read them. Thanks for the inspiration, Martin.