15 Oct 24 - A Hermitage Of Thrushes

When I checked if there was a collective name for Thrushes, I found it was a Hermitage of Thrushes: hence the title of this Blog Post. A Ring Ouzel had been found visiting a Rowan tree on the Middlebere track on Saturday 12 Oct 24. The Ring Ouzel was only making occasional short visits to the Rowan tree. I deliberately avoided the area over the weekend thinking that too many waiting local Birders & Toggers over the weekend were keeping its appearances brief and occasional. However, by the Tuesday morning, I thought it should be fairly quiet along the track. It was a reasonable day, albeit overcast, so the light wasn't great.

The Rowan tree

I arrived to find three other people present. The Ring Ouzel had put in a single early appearance, but nothing in the ninety minutes since. I settled down to wait. There was a good selection of other Thrushes and Blackbirds dropping in every now & then to feed on the Rowan berries.

Mistle Thrush

Mistle Thrush

Mistle Thrush

Mistle Thrush

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

Blackbird: Male

Blackbird: First Year Male

Blackbird: Female

Bullfinch: First Year Male

After about an hour, the Ring Ouzel appeared very briefly and was see by an elderly couple. But it was in the lower left of the tree and out of sight for me and the other local Birder, Brian. This couple left soon after and we shuffled up into a better position. Another twenty minutes later it reappeared in the same part of the tree & I managed to get some photos in the minute or two it was present. After a further twenty minute wait, it reappeared and posed for another batch of photos. But after a couple of minutes in the tree, it was gone again.

Ring Ouzel: Female

Ring Ouzel: Female

Ring Ouzel: Female

Ring Ouzel: Female. It clearly hadn't been told about stuffing all its food into its mouth in one go

Ring Ouzel: Female. A quick swallow & the berry was gone

Ring Ouzel: Female. A quick scoffing of berries & it was ready to depart

I gave it another thirty minutes, but there were no more sightings. I decided to carry onto the hide as the tide was starting to drop. There were a few showy Chiffchaffs around the farm buildings.

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

There were 208 Avocets and 711 Black-tailed Godwits roosting on the mud, along with good numbers of Teal, Wigeon and some Pintail. After a while, a sub-adult male Marsh Harrier appeared. For the next hour and a half it patrolled over the marsh and occasionally it came closer to the hide. At one point, it clearly caught something as it was perched for about twenty minutes feeding, before resuming the patrolling.

Marsh Harrier: Sub-adult Male

Marsh Harrier: Sub-adult Male

Marsh Harrier: Sub-adult Male

Marsh Harrier: Sub-adult Male

6 June 14 - Dragons & Dungeons

The forecast is not looking hopeful for the weekend, so I decided to get out today with the camera in the breezy & intermittently sunny conditions. I had only got as far as the car, when I saw the first thing of interest. It was a Hercules flying low over Nine Barrow Down towards Studland. Presume it's tied in with the D-Day 70th celebrations as Studland Bay was used for some of the live firing rehearsals.Today is the 70th anniversary of Normandy landings.

Hercules: Flying low over Nine Barrow Down towards Studland. Low flying Hercules are fairly regularly seen locally, but that's something for a future posting

There have been no follow on sightings of the Short-toed Eagle up to when I left the house, so I decided that I would have a look around the Lulworth Ranges as that was the last direction it was seen flying in when it left Morden Bog. I didn't expect to relocate it, but it was a good excuse to have a look around the area. There is a public road from East Lulworth to Kimmeridge which provides excellent views of the Lulworth Ranges, however, part of this road is often closed as the Lulworth Ranges & the coastline to the South are part of a military training ground. But I figured it would be open as there wouldn't be any training on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Parking up in a layby gave me a great view over the tank training grounds.

Looking over the Lulworth Ranges: There is some great looking heathland in the distance, but no sign of any Eagles (much to the relief of the local Snake population)

Old tanks never die: A few lucky ones end up at the nearby Bovington Tank Museum, the best Tank Museum in the world, but many end their days here

Another tank skulking in the bushes

Looking West is Lulworth Castle: Not a real Castle, just a early 17th Century Hunting Lodge & Stately Home. I guess it hasn't got any dungeons

Corfe Castle: Now this is what I call a proper Castle & I'm sure it has some real dungeons (Nov 13)

Looking North East is Poole Harbour: This is the Wareham Channel & the Arne Peninsula to the right

Sika Deer

Sika Deer

Sika Deer

Sika Deer: I had suspected these might have been Fallow Deers, but thanks to Richard Webb who confirmed they were Sikas

Next stop was Holmebridge in the Lower Frome Valley to look for Dragonflies. This is a great area of water meadows with access via a public footpath, but I quickly realised it was also a great day for grass pollen & I quickly started suffering from a bad hay fever attack. I persisted for a couple of hours, before finally having to give it up. But there was a good selection of Dragonflies & Damselflies on view.

Small Tortoiseshell

Peacock Caterpillars: I don't find caterpillar identification easy, so let me know via the Comments if I've got this wrong

Hairy Dragonfly: Female

Golden-ringed Dragonfly: Female. The female has slightly different gold rings to the male & a long pointed ovipositor

Broad-bodied Chaser: Female. The broad abdomen & dark bases to all 4 wings makes this an easy Chaser to identify

Banded Demoiselle: Male with the strikingly easy to identify banded wings. There were a few here, but generally pretty mobile

Large Red Damselfly

Azure Damselfly

Azure Damselfly: Mating pair

I find identifying the small blue Damselflies difficult as you need to look for the shape of the black markings on the second segment of the abdomen (counting from the head end) & that means getting a reasonably good view. Then there is the really tricky bit of being able to remember which markings belong to which species. In Dorset, we have to worry about 3 species: Azure, Common Blue and Southern. There is a possibility of Variable also occurring, as they are found in neighbouring Wiltshire & Hampshire, but currently the previous historical records have been rejected.

Azure Damselfly: The shape on the second segment is an U shape

Common Blue Damselfly: The shape on the second segment looks like a head & neck sticking out from the black base line (Stocker's Lake, Herts, June 2012)

Southern Damselfly: The shape on the second segment is an the most complicated. I think of it as a Viking with the big horned helmet and standing with legs together (Dorset, July 2012)

Chrysotoxum bicinctum: A good looking Hoverfly

I returned home to find one of my local Bullfinches pairs has had the first fledged juvenile. I get frequent daily visits from at least 2 pairs of Bullfinches (bribery with black Sunflower seed really works with them). I always happy when I see this cracking bird as they are one of my favourite UK Birds. Although they are happy to feed at the feeders within a metre of the kitchen door, they won't come in if the kitchen door is open. So I ended up having to photograph through the window.

Bullfinch: Juvenile. Superficially they are like the females, but they do not have the dark cap of the females. This youngster also seems to have that dazed look that I've seen on a few recently fledged birds (Phew I just managed to get a Bird into the post)