16 Oct 24 - Bad Hair Day

Thanks to heavy early morning rain and the threat of more rain by mid-afternoon, it had been a very quiet day with few visitors on Brownsea. I was manning the videoscope in the Avocet hide, but I was the only person in the hide. To keep myself occupied, I started photographing some of the male Teal which were close to the hide and which were in various degrees of eclipse plumage. If you search for common species of Wildfowl, most photos online are pristine males and to a lesser extent females. I'm sure part of this is down to some photographers who aren't Birders, being unable to identify Ducks which aren't obvious adult males. Whereas, for others a Duck in grotty-looking plumage just isn't worth taking the photo in the first place. So, to combat that, here are some eclipse Teal.

Eclipse Male Teal

Eclipse Male Teal: The same individual

Eclipse Male Teal: The same individual

Eclipse Male Teal: A different individual which is only just starting to show traces of chestnut on its crown. Perhaps it's a first winter individual

Male Teal: This individual which wasn't as close has already completed its moult

After this Blog Post is posted, it will be interesting to see it Google prefers to show me photos of pretty male Teal, rather than these photos, which I search for "eclipse Teal". I'm not optimistic.

14 Mar 22 - A Perfect Level Morning

I had spent the three previous days in Ireland catching up with the Egyptian Vulture and Northern Harrier for my UK & Irish List. It was time to return to the UK. I prefer to catch the daytime ferries back from Ireland, so I can seawatch on the way back. In the Summer & Autumn, there will usually be a few Short-beaked Common Dolphins and maybe a Harbour Porpoise or a Grey Seal, as well as, a few Seabirds. However, I figured it wouldn't be that exciting in mid-March and therefore I might as well I had catch the evening Irish Ferry sailing from Rosslare to Pembroke Dock.

I managed to get a bit of sleep on the ferry, before we were called to prepare to disembark at 00:45. Arriving at this time, leaves a long drive out of Wales in the early hours of the morning. I could have found somewhere to pull the car over for the rest of the night in South Wales, but I had plans for the following morning. So, I carried on until I reached Gordano Services, in the Bristol area. I managed to get an hour & a half of sleep here, until it was starting to get light. After another forty minutes of driving, I pulled into the car park at the Greylake reserve on the Somerset Levels.

It was my first visit to Greylake, but it was a couple of months overdue. On 3 Jan 22, a photographer had published a photo of an odd Duck which was quickly identified as a gorgeous male Baikal Teal. It later turned out it had been there for at least a week before anybody bothered to ask what it was. This is the problem with many Bird photographers, who don't bother to learn about how to identify their subjects. This is a contrast to the Birders, who might still be learning how to get the most out of their cameras, but they generally have good identification skills. In January, I was fully into the start of my 2022 Historic Isle of Purbeck Year List and I never made the journey up to the Levels.

It was a lovely still, crisp and sunny morning, which was perfect weather to visit. I headed straight for the main hide, where there were over five hundred Ducks on a bank running away from the hide or in the water. This included at least one hundred and sixty Teal, four hundred Wigeon, as well as, some Shovelers, Gadwall and Mallards, with more Ducks poorly visible to the left. I asked the two local photographers in the hide about the Baikal Teal, but they weren't looking beyond the first twenty metres from the hide and didn't have any idea if the Baikal Teal was present.

Teal: Males. There were a lot of sleeping Duck in the edges of the reeds

Teal: Male

Wigeon: Male

Shoveler: Male

After five minutes of scanning, one of the Ducks moved to reveal the sleeping make Baikal Teal on the bank. It looking stunning and was closer than normal, according to one of the photographers.

Where's Wally?: This was just some of the mainly Wigeon on the raised bank

Baikal Teal: Wally wasn't that hard to find, once the Wigeon that had been obscuring him had moved out of the way

Eventually, the Baikal Teal woke up and flew a couple of times when the patrolling Marsh Harriers got too close and disturbed all the Ducks. On the second time, the Baikal Teal landed in the water, before heading back to the raised area.

Marsh Harrier: They only passed close to the hide twice, but when they did they flush most of the Ducks

Wigeon: Flushed by one of the flying over Marsh Harriers

Baikal Teal: The Baikal Teal woke up & flushed with the Wigeon, but it quickly came back down onto the water

Baikal Teal: Note, how variable the green colouration in the face is, as the Baikal Teal moves its head

Baikal Teal: It has an interesting head shape when head on

Baikal Teal

Baikal Teal: Finally, it walked back onto the raised bank

It is a great reserve which I will definitely visit again when I'm passing the Levels.

Dabchick

Great White Egret: There were three Great White Egrets further back in the marsh

I stayed for about an hour and a half and left the hide just in time. As I walked back to the car, there was a number of toggers descending on the hide. I was only just starting to use bird hides again after the C19 lockdowns and I didn't want to be in busy hides.

Snipe: This Snipe has just found a worm

Snipe: Sucking up the worm. I love it when I get to photograph a bit of behaviour like this

I later found out that I managed to see the Baikal Teal on its final morning, as it was seen flying off North East in the late afternoon. It wasn't seen again. I was out on the Birds of Poole Harbour bird boats later in March and also at Studland and saw parties of Duck, lift off the water, fly high & leave Poole Harbour on similar clear evenings. So, it looks like they regularly start a migration flight in the hour before dusk.

5 Apr 2015 - History Repeats Itself (Finally)

35 years ago, in late March 1981, I spent a weekend twitching in the Penzance & Hayle area of Cornwall looking for my first Bonaparte's Gull. After an unsuccessful first day, we finally caught up with it on the Sunday morning, after Keith Vinicombe located it a long way out on the Hayle estuary mud. Two weeks later, we were planning the next weekend of Birding. There were no major ticks to take our fancy, so a weekend of camping at Portland Bill was the plan. It should have had migrants, but my notebooks said it was a quiet weekend. But we did see the Bonaparte's Gull again. It would have been a Dorset Tick, but living in Southampton, Hampshire in those days, meant I wasn't interested in a Dorset List. It was the highlight of the weekend & gave great views down to 10 metres at Radipole on 4 Apr 1981. We didn't see it on the following day, but it was still in the Weymouth area as we saw it a couple of weeks later.

Herring Gull: Just getting the camera set up for photographing Gulls

Moving forward to this year on 7 Mar, a Bonaparte's Gull was found at Ferrybridge before moving to Portland Harbour. I didn't make the effort to go down to look for it, which was clearly a good plan as it was very elusive in these early days. Peter Moore ended up having to make three attempts to photograph it, although he did see it, on the first occasion. After a couple of weeks of no sightings, it looked like it had quickly moved through. Then it reappeared at Radipole & quickly settled down into a pattern of showing from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. I planned to visit on 4 Apr, which would have been exactly 35 years on from my first Dorset sighting. But following the brief appearance of a singing Serin at Corfe Castle, I ended up spending several hours unsuccessfully trying to relocate that individual. So one day later, I was down at Radipole looking. As soon as I started arrived at the tennis courts, I could see it feeding off the Buddilea loop trail. Heading to the end of the Buddilea loop trail, got me close at times, but frustratingly it often moved to the tennis courts end to feed. Eventually, I ended up back there again. So 35 years & a day after my first & only Dorset Bonaparte's Gull at Radipole, I was back there again to see my next. Maybe if there is another Bonaparte's in another 35 years & a day, I won't have to lug a heavy 400mm lens & Canon 7D around, as the technology will have moved on so I can produce as good an image from a camera in my glasses or watch. Having said that I probably won't be around in 2050 to find out!

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer. This is only the sixth Dorset record with 3 one day records: Durlston (Mar 1970); Portland (Mar 1990) & Weymouth (Apr 2006). The 1981 Weymouth individual stayed from 2 Apr to 8 June. The other record was a four day individual at Stanpit (Apr 1975)

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer. A really striking upperwing clean-cut pattern 

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer. They are a small Gull, but this Herring Gull was the only Gull it sat next to for a size comparison

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer. It gets the name from Charles Lucien Bonaparte (a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) who was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philidephia in the 1820s & worked as a zoologist on American ornithology

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer. The extent of the translucency in the wing is striking

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer. Note, the fine black bill

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer. It spent a long time catching small flying insects above the water

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer

Bonaparte's Gull: 1st Summer. Note, the small flying insect below its legs

Every now & then, it would disappear to feed for five to ten minutes on the tennis courts end. This gave me a chance to photograph a few of the other local species. While not being particularly unusual species, Radipole, is a good place to get close views & photographs of these species.

Gadwall: Male. My favourite dabbling Duck

Gadwall: Female

Teal: Male. Another great species when you see them close up

Teal: Female

Mallard: Male. Some individuals just would not keep a reasonable distance to allow me to photograph the whole body

Coot

30 Sep 14 - The New Studland Great White Egret

Just when the Studland Great White Egret & story was looking settled, a pager message on the 28th said 2 Great White Egrets on Littlesea. But there was nothing on the local email group about the second individual, so there was no clue as to the observer. Given this is the most frequently misidentified species in Poole Harbour, then I was interested, but cautious. But the caution was removed by a call 30 minutes later from my mate, Richard Webb, to say he was watching 2 GWEs on Littlesea. This confirmed there was a new individual in town, but he hadn't phoned the original news out. Having just got used to the news we finally had a showy GWE in Poole Harbour, then to have a second individual at Studland was even more remarkable. I was on the end of Old Harry at the time & by the time I had finished Birding there & got to Littlesea & Brands Bay, both GWEs had departed. I did managed to see both late on the follow afternoon at Littlesea, but no chance of any photos. So a couple of return visits were scheduled to look for them. This mornings visit on the rising morning tide to Brands Bay was unsuccessful, but a distant Osprey in the bay was good to see as were the first returning Grey Plovers that flew into the bay. A quick look at Littlesea, failed to find any GWEs, but it wasn't a thorough look as I was keen to get onto Middlebere (but more on that in a future post).

Teal: The only bird close enough to be photographed on this visit & a new species for the blog

Teal: Great to see them back in numbers

By the time I was finally leaving Middlebere, I decided to give Brands Bay another look as the tide should be starting to drop. I arrived to find a couple who I had met earlier at Middlebere by their car. They were just giving up & heading home. Before they left, they confirmed the water was still high & there were no GWEs in the bay. Oh well, it was a bit of a long shot. I then got a non birding phone call before I had had chance to get the scope & camera out of the car. While I was on the phone about 6 Egrets went up from the bay including a GWE: must have been in the side creek & out of sight of the hide after all. Finally, the call ended & I could grab everything & get to hide to see if it was still there.

Great White Egret: Here I am. Before I could get a decent shot it flew to the middle of the bay

The light in Brands Bay at this time of the day is always grim, as checking the best parts of the bay means looking straight into the sun. When it gets really bad, Redshanks can be almost as contrasty as Oystercatchers in some parts of the bay. So the photos aren't great, but even so, I can't see any sign of buff edgings to the coverts in the photos or with the scope. As such, it looks like we should be able to separate these two individuals (if good views or photos are obtained).

Great White Egret: The new individual

Great White Egret: The new individual

Hopefully some better photos will follow in the next few days. Photos of the first GWE can be found here.