14 June 14 - Portland Welcomes A Scottish Tourist

Following my recent light-hearted posting on Scottish Independence & the impacts on our bird lists, it is great to report that a Scottish visitor seems to have taken up residence on Portland. In the long run, if it stays this will help the Dorset birders keep their fuel costs low for a year tick, but in the short term it pushed up the same fuel bills as many of us travelled to see it once it arrived. The visitor in question is a Hooded Crow. Just have to hope for the rest of the Scottish goodies (Ptarmigan, Crested Tit & Capercaillie) to also move to England ahead of the vote on Scottish Independence (see earlier post).

Hooded Crow: A long hoped for, but not expected Dorset Tick. Not a brilliant show but it looks pretty pure

The Hoodie had been found the previous morning, but was only around the Portland Bill area for around an hour or so, before departing North not to be seen again. I had assumed it would go the way of many of the Portland rarities of quickly moving through this excellent migration point. But the good news was it was back the following morning & associating with the local Carrion Crows. By the time I got there, it had been seen coming & going a couple of times to a Carrion Crow flock in the Top Fields, so it was a case of waiting to see if it would return again. Fortunately, for me, it was only a few minutes after I arrived that it was seen flying back in again, before dropping out of sight in the field. After another brief flight view, it then decided to fly right down & around the Bill area, before setting into a field there. 15 minutes later it was back with the Carrion Crow flock & the next time it flew, it headed to towards the North Eastern part of the island. Clearly, a mobile bird, but it does now seem to have settled down around a pig farm at The Grove in the North East of Portland.

Hooded Crow: It does like to fly

Hooded Crow

Carrion Crow: Complaining it wasn't getting the same interest as the visitor 

As the Hoodie didn't reappear in the next half hour, it was time to check out the temptations in the Obs book shop.

Buzzard: Over the Top Fields. This is a species that has got commoner here since I first started visiting Portland in 1978 

Swift

21 April 14 - Brands Bay

The title of this blog is Birding Poole Harbour and Beyond. Well there has been plenty of Birding & Beyond, but surprisingly little of Poole Harbour so far. So guess I had better start addressing that. One of my favourite sites in Poole Harbour is Brands Bay, Studland. This is split into the inner bay, which has a bird hide & the outer bay where the bay extends into the direction of the Brownsea channel. A recent visit on the rising tide confirmed that the typical Spring migrants were around.

Brands Bay: About half tide. Thanks to the panorama function on the iphone

Brands Bay: Looking towards Redhorn Quay (the sandy spit), with Brownsea Island in the background (on the right hand side)

Brands Bay: Looking left. Some great mud areas which are popular on the rising & falling tides for the Waders & Wildfowl & marshes for them to hide in at high tide

Shelduck: Male as it has a knob on at the base of it's bill (you can do the obvious jokes)

Shelduck: Some breeding locally, but there always seem to be a lot more that don't breed given how few young I see in Brands Bay out of the 190 or so present today. As the tide rises they congregate in this grassy area to rest & display

Oystercatcher: Adult as it has jet black plumage. Up to about 50 can be found in the bay in the winter, but numbers are down to about 10 non-breeders at that moment

Oystercatcher: The brownish flight feathers indicates this is a 1st Summer bird

Black-tailed Godwit: Icelandic birds arrive in the Autumn with wintering numbers in Poole Harbour around 3000 or more birds. Then at the start of Jan they disappear en mass to the Avon Valley to feed on the flood plains before returning a few weeks later. The last leave for Iceland around the second half of May. Apparently, moving to the Avon Valley seems to be a good strategy as they have a longer lifespan than the East Anglian birds, which stay on the mudflats throughout the winter. There was an excellent documentary on Radio 4 on this last year, featuring an old mate of mine from Portsmouth, Pete Potts, who has been heavily involved in ringing studies on Blackwits for many years

Whimbrel: There are normally a few in Brands Bay during the Spring & Autumn passage periods. The crown stripe and distinctive call give them away

Whimbrel: The short bill is another good identification feature. But at longer range, the darker overall look and short legs are also good features to pick them out (when you are too far to see the crown stripe)

Yellow-legged Gull: Adult. An erratic visitor to Brands Bay, given how frequent they are at Middlebere & around Poole

Yellow-legged Gull: Adult. Every few minutes it jumped up half out of the water, before plunging in after some food. A great opportunity to photograph the reduced white mirrors in the wingtips (compared to Herring Gulls) 

Yellow-legged Gull: Adult. Another view of the wing pattern

Raven: One of the local Ravens flew through the bay

Raven: But it got some significant hassle from one of the local Carrion Crows, which had only just seen off a Buzzard over the nearby Greenlands Farm