30 Apr 25 - Spring Has Arrived On Brownsea

A couple of days after my previous volunteering visit to the DWT Brownsea Lagoon, some of the Sandwich Terns started occupying nest sites on the breeding islands in front the Tern Hide. Today, about a third of the Sandwich Terns were on the islands, although the majority were still resting and displaying in a bigger group near the Spoonbill Tamerisk island.

Sandwich Terns: The first Sandwich Terns are back on their islands with the Black-headed Gulls

Sandwich Terns

The Common Terns are generally a week or two behind the Sandwich Terns, which isn't surprising as they arrive back two to three weeks after the Sandwich Terns. It was good to see the first of the Common Terns were starting to move onto the breeding islands in front of the Avocet hide. Not to be outdone, the first Greylag Goose family was swimming around the Lagoon.

The first Greylag Goose family walking in front of the first Common Terns returning to one of their breeding islands

The Brownsea Lagoon certainly felt like Spring had arrived and even the weather reflected that.

28 Apr 25 - Chasing The Dragon (Purbeck Style)

If you search for "Chasing the Dragon" on the internet, you will find it's a name for smoking heroin. However, the Purbeck version is a much more pleasant variation. For the past few days, I've seen a Broad-bodied Chaser hanging around my garden and being typically elusive. It took me ten years before I saw my first Broad-bodied Chaser for the Garden List and I had one or two sightings annually for the next five years. Then they appeared to die out as I had no sightings in the nine years until I saw one during the first Spring lockdown. Since then, they have been almost annual, but still just one or two sightings a year. In several of the years, I've seen them, the views have been so short, that I've had to record them as a Chaser sp. However, as Broad-bodied Chaser is the only Chaser I've recorded in the garden, then it is a fair bet only one species occurs. Finally today, I've had one perch up for several minutes by my front garden pond. I had to take some photos and I'm pleased with the results.

Broad-bodied Chaser: They are my favourite UK species of Chaser

I always think of Dragonflies as having hard external bodies. However, when you watch them at a few metres, you can see the abdomen broadening and contracting. The next two photos were taken within a few frames, so about a half second apart in time and from the same position. Note, the differences in the width of the abdomen (which is the same length in both photos).

Broad-bodied Chaser: A typical broad abdomen

Broad-bodied Chaser: The abdomen is about five percent narrower in this photo

This is only the second occasion that I've managed to photograph a Broad-bodied Chaser in the garden.

Broad-bodied Chaser: A final & closer photo before it moved on

28 Apr 25 - The Brown & Yellow

Regular followers of the Blog will know that one of my favourite Purbeck Birds are my local Corn Buntings. This Spring they have been very approachable on the St Aldhelms patch, with individuals posing on fence posts and the dung heap by the Chapel.

Corn Bunting: Sometimes, they can be comfortable with a slow and careful approach (6 Apr 25)

Corn Bunting: The latin name is calandra means Skylark and is a nickname for someone with a fine singing voice (6 Apr 25)

Corn Bunting: The Rape fields provide a nice backdrop for some of the Corn Buntings (11 Apr 25)

Corn Bunting: Another Rape field backdrop (12 Apr 25)

Corn Bunting: (12 Apr 25)

Corn Bunting: (26 Apr 25)

Corn Bunting: (26 Apr 25)

Corn Bunting

Corn Bunting: They must have the largest bill for their size of UK Passerine

16 Apr 25 - A Brownsea Wall Mason Wasp

I headed back to the DWT Villa on Brownsea for a lunch break on my usual volunteering Weds. It was a sunny day, so I took the cuppa I had just made out into the Villa courtyard to have my lunch. This was quickly disturbed by a small, slim black and yellow Bee or Wasp looking around holes in the open back gate. It was obviously not a German Wasp as it was thinner and the markings were wrong. I started thinking about it being one of the Nomad Bees and I took a few quick photos. It disappeared, but returned to look again at the same hole a few minutes later. This gave me the chance for a few more photos, before it flew off again. I gave it another five minutes, while I finished my cuppa and lunch, but it didn't reappear. I was scheduled to take over manning the vid-scope in the Avocet hide and I didn't have the time to hang around to get some better photos. When I got home, I put one of the photos into Google Lens and it suggested one of the Ancistrocerus Mason Wasps. I've not got any books on Wasps and so I forwarded the photos to my mate Steve Morrison, who knows his Wasps.

Wall Mason Wasp

The feedback from Steve was "the photos are good. I would normally need to have it under the 10x loupe, but the size of the Wasp, the pattern of the first tergite, along with the facial pattern in the last photo all looks good for Ancistrocerus parietinus (Wall Mason Wasp) and I'd accept it such. It's also a female with six exposed abdominal segments as opposed to seven in the male and twelve antennal segments as opposed to thirteen. It's fairly common, but overlooked as all Solitary Wasps are these days".

Wall Mason Wasp

Wall Mason Wasp

When I went to add the record to my Birding and Wildlife database, I found I had already seen it once before in my house. I photographed one that was flying into through my open conservatory door and was investigating a small hole in the kitchen door frame, which would have been on the outside of the house before the conservatory was added. Here is a photo of that individual taken in Jun 24, which Steve kindly identified for me. More photos of that individual can be found in this Blog Post of my Wall Mason Wasp.

Wall Mason Wasp: Swanage (18 Jun 24)

Looking it up on the BWARS website, it looks to be a relatively widespread species in England & Wales up to Yorkshire, with less frequent records in the far North of England & Scotland. June & July are most likely flying months with less frequent sightings in May & August. The BWARS website states it is a tube-dweller and often nests in the stems of bramble and elder. The Flowers visited are Sea-holly, Bramble, Hogweed and Thistles.

12 Apr 25 - An Adder At St Aldhelms

Very occasionally, I've bumped into an Adder on the St Aldhelms patch. Whenever I see an Adder at St Aldhelms it's a good day. On this occasion, it was a different location on Quarry Ledge to where I've seen them before. I managed to get a photo before it realised that I was there, but it quickly turned and disappeared off into the long grass.

Adder

Adder: A close up of the head

Adder: It quickly disappeared into the long grass

9 Apr 25 - A Spring Black-tailed Godwit

The Avocet hide on the DWT Brownsea lagoon has a shallow area of mud in front of it. Every few visits, an interesting Wader will feed in this area close to the hide. It would be rude not to take some photos when the opportunity arises.

Black-tailed Godwit: This is the islandica subspecies which breeds on Iceland, the Faeroes & Shetland. This is the regular wintering subspecies in Dorset and it is getting ready to head off North

Black-tailed Godwit: The supercilium appears to have disappeared as it turned its head

6 Apr 25 - Dotted Bee Fly

One of my favourite Insect groups are Bee Flies. They are easily overlooked as another Bee or Hoverfly if you aren't looking at them properly. I was pleased to see three Dotted Bee Flies at St Aldhelms and to get the chance to photograph this individual.

Dotted Bee Fly: The long proboscis, dotted wings and appearance in early Spring makes this species easy to identify. The other Spring species, Dark-edged Bee Fly has a wavey dark brown leading edge to the wing and no dots

There are four species of Bombylius Bee Flies found in the UK and they all have this distinctively-shaped proboscis. The other six non-Bombylius Bee Flies that occur in the UK, do not have the large proboscis.

2 Apr 25 - Arnie The Tern

I can't remember anything of the film, other than the often-repeated phrase "I'm back" that Arnold Schwarzenegger used in one of his dull Terminator films from decades ago, when there were few TV options to watch in the evening.

On a much more interesting note, in Apr 23, a Forster's Tern was found at Lytchett Bay and it was only the second Dorset record, albeit it had turned up a couple of weeks earlier at Sutton Bingham reservoir. It stayed until mid-May and travelled widely around central and Northern Poole Harbour away, when it wasn't at its regular Brownsea haunt. It reappeared in Poole Harbour in mid-July. Just as we thought it would overwinter, it disappeared in mid-Nov and was seen soon after in North France. We weren't surprised when it reappeared the following Spring and Autumn. Several UK and Irish records have settled into long staying patterns, so nobody was suprised when it popped up again in late Mar 25 at Arne: one of its favourite locations. I didn't make any effort to chase it as I was expecting it to reappear on Brownsea. Sure enough, it was seen on the lagoon a couple of days later. I was expecting it to be there on my next volunteering day. I arrived into the new Lookout hide and scanned the Boomerang Island: Sandwich Tern, Sandwich Tern, Sandwich Tern, Forster's Tern. That was easy. It spent most of the day on the lagoon that day.

Arnie the Forster's Tern: Anybody want to bet if it will be back in the early Autumn?

I spent the morning chatting to members of the public in the Lookout hide and it wasn't until the afternoon, that I managed to visit to the Avocet hide. It was good to see this close Redshank just in front of the hide. Every now and then a Wader will happily feed on the mud close to the hide.

Redshank

After I was relieved from operating the vid-scope in the Avocet hide, it was time to head to the villa for a break. This Female Mallard must take the record for the greatest number of ducklings I've seen a Mallard with: nineteen is a pretty good clutch. I wonder how many will survive?

Mallard: Can I have a Channel 4/5 TV series says single mum with 19 babies?

It had been a good day volunteering on the Brownsea lagoon.