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)

2 June 14 - Greenlands Farm

I have already had the change to write a post on Greenslands Farm (part of my Studland local patch) covering the best day I've had there, when there was a Richard's Pipit & Hoopoe present on the 24 April 2014. A couple of visits on 25 May & 2 June were more typical visits, when the conditions looked good, but it was pretty quiet. Still it gave me the chance to photograph some of the good views for this area, which didn't happen when there was a couple of rarities to distract me. On both days, sunny conditions & Southerly winds meant it was worth getting out locally around Studland. Greenlands Farm is part of the National Trust Studland estate, with the majority of the area being two large open short grassland fields. There are always some Cattle & Horses grazing over it, which helps to keep this area looking great for migrants. It's a good area to look for more open country migrants, especially Wagtails & Pipits, Wheatears, Whinchats & Thrushes. There are also some good smaller fields to view from the main track, which are worth looking for migrant Warblers. But these fields are private & should not be entered. Another great area to check is the forest edge where Greenslands Farm borders the adjacent Rempstone estate.

Greenlands Farm: Looking South over the open fields, with Godlingston Heath in the background and the chalk Corfe ridge behind

Greenlands Farm Cattle: These cows help to keep the area grazed. Sometimes they are moved onto the Heathland edge on Godlingston Heath

Greenlands Farm Cattle: These Cattle are pretty docile animals

Greenlands Farm Horses: It's always worth checking the area the Cattle & Horses are feeding, as they attract Pied Wagtails & Yellow Wagtails during the migration periods

The trees which form the border with the Rempstone estate are always worth a check for migrants

Cuckoo: Males are frequently heard calling especially from the neighbouring Rempstone estate, but they are less commonly seen. This is the nominate canorus subspecies

Green Woodpecker: It would be surprising to walk around Greenlands Farm & not hear or see a Green Woodpecker

Stonechat: Great to see a female with 4 lively offspring

Treecreeper: A family photo tick

Treecreeper: This is the britannica subspecies which occurs in the UK & Ireland

Southern Marsh Orchid: I need to rephotograph this as one of the key features is the leaf shape and markings

1 June 14 - Signs Of Some Of Purbeck Oldest Residents

I have recently been told about some Tumuli at Godlingston Heath next to my Studland patch. So thought I would have a look at the site. It's near a viewpoint over the Studland area. I've looked from the viewpoint on many occasions, but I didn't know the Tumuli were there. There are 3 Tumuli or Round Barrows here. Steve Morrison has commented that they are Bronze Age (approximately 2500 BC to 800 BC). They would have been burial mounds for important people within the community who lived here. Dorset & neighbouring Wiltshire have a lot of Neolithic & Bronze Age monuments, mostly in the chalk parts of the county and there are quite a few other Barrow locations in the Purbeck area. I've not been able to find out anything else about these Tumuli, but if anybody reading this does know anything more about these Tumuli, please leave a comment to this post. On the Scillies, archeological studies have shown that the people were living & farming on the lower parts of the islands & placing their Barrows on higher ground where they would be more visible at a distance. Presumably, a similar thing is happening here, especially as there are additional barrows higher up on the chalk ridge which separates the Poole Harbour basin from the Swanage area on Nine Barrow Down.There are plenty of other examples of Barrows on high ground elsewhere in the Dorset & Wiltshire area, but this little corner of the Poole Harbour reminds me of the Scillies with the close proximity of Heath & Downs, next to the coastline (just from a habitat viewpoint, rather than a rarity viewpoint).

The Godlingston Tumuli: There are 3 Tumuli or Round Barrows here

There are good views over Newtons Bay & Brands Bay from this area.

View from the Tumuli: Newtons Bay is on the left, with Brands Bay on the right & the harbour mouth at the extreme right hand end of the photo

There were a few Butterflies & Dragonflies on the wing in the surrounding area.

Painted Lady: There has been a small arrival of Painted Ladies in the last couple of weeks from Europe, but some years have hundreds of thousands of this great Butterfly arriving on Southerly winds, before breeding & heading North. A smaller movement South is sometimes obvious in the Autumn

Small Tortoiseshell: Sadly, this once common Butterfly has declined quite a bit since my youth

Brown Silver-line: A fairly common day flying Moth where Bracken occurs on Heaths

Keeled Skimmer: Female. They are just starting to appear locally

Keeled Skimmer: Female. I couldn't resist another photo of this stunning Dragonfly

Coreus marginatus: This Shieldbug doesn't have an English name. It is fairly common across the Southern half of England and coastal Wales in dense hedgerows, wastelands & damper areas

I had spent the morning at Old Harry looking to see if the Grey-headed Wagtail was still around at Old Harry, while several hundred people had been watching the Short-toed Eagle at Morden Bog. Before I left Old Harry, it had been seen flying off high South & West from Morden. I thought it might have been tempted to hang around on the Lulworth tank ranges & return to Morden Bog that afternoon. Therefore, I headed to a viewpoint overlooking the Wareham to East Holme water meadows. From here I had a reasonable, but distant, view of the Lulworth ranges. I could have found closer viewpoints of the Lulworth ranges, but that wouldn't have put me between the ranges & Morden Bog. More crucially, it wouldn't have put me within the Poole Harbour area. At this point, we didn't know if it had occurred in Poole Harbour, but myself & a number of the local Harbour listers were doing our best to add it to the Harbour list. We subsequent know that it was seen over Arne soon after if disappeared on the Saturday morning, but only seen by a visiting birdwatcher. My 2.5 hour vigil wasn't wasted, despite no sign of the Short-toed Eagle, as my Plan B worked. About a month ago, local Harbour birder, Nick Hopper, was doing survey work on a farm close to where I was standing. He flushed a Grey Partridge, a species that hadn't been seen in Poole Harbour since the late 90s. One was heard the following evening, by Nick & a couple of other local Harbour birders, but I had no success when Nick took me onto this private farm. However, as part of the farm is bordered by the Wareham to Wool road, I've been looking every time I pass the area. This was about my 8th attempt & I was keeping my eye on a couple of small ploughed fields, between Eagle watching. This Plan B tactic paid off when a Grey Partridge walked across one of the fields, before walking back into cover: my fifth Harbour tick of the year. This compares to 3 in each of the last 2 years, so it has been a great Spring locally. Sadly, too far for a photo on this occasion.

Worbarrow Hill Fort: I've not noticed this before, but it will be somewhere to explore this Summer. Another sign of some of Dorset's oldest residents 

As the temperature was starting to drop, I figured that as it was now about 2 hours after the Short-toed Eagle had gone to roost on the previous afternoon, then I was probably not going to get it flying overhead to Morden Bog. There had been no confirmed sightings since it flew off about 10:00, just the usual probable (i.e. rubbish) claims that seem to occur whenever an interesting large Raptor occurs. So a final scan over Soldiers Road & Hartland Heath in case it was roosting over there, before home for some well earnt food.

Finally, I've had some great feedback from Brett Spencer & Martin Garner on the Grey-headed Wagtail, so please check back & view the comments for that post.

1 June 14 - The Day After The Day Before

After a short night's sleep, there was no problem deciding where to head out to the following morning. The choices were: back to Morden Bog to have another look for the Short-toed Eagle; return to Old Harry to see if the Grey-headed Wagtail was still there; try somewhere else around Studland. Clearly, it had to be Old Harry. Although the chances the Wagtail was still around was slim, then if it was then I could get the news out so some of the other locals could see it. I spent over 3 hours on the far end of Old Harry, but there was no sign of the Grey-headed Wagtail. Not too surprising given the previous day would have had a lot of visitors from late am onwards, given the nice weather & the end of a week of school holidays. Unfortunately, all the fields nearby have crops in them this year, so there are no cattle around to hold it either (there were cattle in one of these fields last year). So it looks like it had moved on. I did check the fields at Greenlands Farm on the following day, as their cows & horses are popular with Yellow Wagtails during migration, but no joy there either. But it was a great sunny day, with still conditions & few people there to spoil it (until the hordes descended late morning). So the chance to get some more photos & to reflect on how stunning the scenery is for this part of my local birding patch. It's a real pity that rare birds are so poor at choosing great scenery when deciding where to turn up.

The panoramic view from Seat Point

Looking to Swanage from Old Harry

Looking to Old Harry from the next Southerly chalk promontory

Studland Sea Kayaks: This part of Studland Bay is home to both species of UK Seahorses. These kayak guys probably have the least impact on them of all water users. Can't say the same for the water skier haring around the same area the previous day or the jet skiers who think it's fun to race into the bay

Swanage Gig: It's great to see one of the Swanage gigs aptly named Old Harry, rowing past Old Harry

Walking South from Old Harry: There is a coastal footpath that leads to Swanage. The meadow is looking superb this year

In addition to yesterday's Great Black-backed Gulls & Herring Gulls that breed on the Old Harry rockstacks, there are other breeding Seabirds on the cliffs: Fulmars, Cormorants & Shags.

Fulmar: A Family Photo Tick (Shearwaters & Petrels)

Fulmar: They like to nest high up on the cliffs. The bird is sitting in a hole within the chalk & it's only possible to see it's wings & tail

Cormorant: The local breeders are all the nominate carbo subspecies

Cormorant: The characteristic wing drying posture

Cormorant: A few pairs nest on the cliffs

Cormorant: They are really good looking birds when seen close up

Herring Gull: Adult. Great to see them flying past me at or below my level

Herring Gull: Another of the breeding birds

Skylark: A reasonable number of pairs of the nominate arvensis subspecies breeds on Old Harry & Ballard Down. The are replaced in Northern England, Scotland & Ireland by the scotica subspecies

Rock Pipit: They nest on the cliffs & regularly song flight around the cliffs

Song Thrush: Looks like it Snail for breakfast again

Speckled Wood

Dingy Skipper: Surprisingly, the first one I've seen at Old Harry