1 Jun 22 - #30DaysWild Day 1 - Black-headed Gull

I am probably going to regret the decision to get involved with #30DaysWild, as it will mean carrying my heavy camera, in addition to the telescope and post a photo & Blog daily for the next month. But here goes. I hadn't planned to do this while I was on Brownsea on 1 Jun doing my weekly volunteering & the only photos taken were of some juvenile Black-headed Gulls. Still it may get the Laridophiles excited.

Black-headed Gull: Many are very keen at this age to explore the lagoon without appreciating that they might be a target for one of the fifteen pairs of nesting Great Black-backed Gulls

Black-headed Gull: Juvenile. Some are clearly a lot older

26 May 22 - A Studland Alpine Swift

In 2022, I was doing a historic Isle of Purbeck Year List. The drawback of year listing is sometimes you end up having to chase species in locations you wouldn't normally do. Today was a good example with me spending about 2.5 hours in the afternoon unsuccessfully looking for a Little Gull from Slepe Heath, that the Birds of Poole Harbour Bird Boat had seen that morning in the Wareham Channel. Eventually, I decided to give up & head to Poole for a weekly food shop.

I hadn't got far when Paul Morton rang. He had received a message that he had seen an Alpine Swift over the cliffs at Old Harry. I quickly turned the car around. It wasn't clear if the Alpine Swift was hanging around or not. I decided to head for the Middle Beach car park. I could scan over the Southern end of Studland Bay & the Old Harry area with the scope & cover the area quickly, compared to the twenty minute walk out to Old Harry. After a few minutes of scanning, I could see a lone powerful Swift occasionally breaking the skyline over the wood at the end of Old Harry. I rang Paul back to say it was still present at Old Harry & we should head there. It took me a few minutes to move the car to the South Beach car park & I rang the updated news around the locals as I was walking out.

Alpine Swift

Paul & a couple of the Birds of Poole Harbour team had beaten me to Old Harry & they were watching it hawk up & down along the cliff edge about a couple of hundred metres South of Old Harry. I had decided that there was no point in taking the camera with me to look for the Little Gull. So, I arrived at Old Harry without a camera. The following photos were taken with my mobile. But the mobile was great for some slow motion videos of the Alpine Swift as it flew within a few metres of where we were sitting on the cliff edge. Unfortunately, the videos are too large to upload. I will need to find some video editing software to select the best part.

Alpine Swift

This would only be the fourth record for Studland. The previous records were over: one over Godlingston Heath (1 May 87) found by Steve Morrison, two over Knoll Beach car park (29 Mar 88) and one North over the Studland dunes (5 May 93). The latter two records were from visiting Birders and do not appear to have ever been formally submitted to the Dorset Bird Club. The two in 1988 were submitted, but only for Swanage on the following two days.

It was an enjoyable local twitch

The Alpine Swift stayed until 08:20 the following morning, before it drifted off over the sea & was lost to view. The handful of Birders who saw it that morning, also got to see David Attenborough, who was filming a sequence for the Wild Isles series. An even better sighting that the Alpine Swift.

23 May 22 - Traditional House Martins

As the name suggests, we tend to think of House Martins as nesting under the eaves of houses. However, this is only a relatively recent adaptation for House Martins & I'm guessing it has only been something they have been commonly doing for a few hundred years, after the first stone buildings were constructed on a regular basis. Some of the early Norman castles & medieval cathedrals probably hosted the first House Martin colonies on buildings.

Before that date, House Martins in the UK would have most likely have nested on cliffs. These days there are probably few sites in the UK where House Martins still nest on cliffs. One location where a small colony still do so is Old Harry, on my Studland patch. I've been watching this colony for quite a few years now & over the last decade, I've been trying to get photos of them nest building. This is surprisingly hard to do, given they are nesting on the underhanging cliffs. Finally, this year I've had some success in locating a nest being built. The colony size appears to be between five & ten nests in size.

House Martin: This group were gathering mud for their nests, so time for another year of trying to photograph a nest

House Martin: I didn't see this individual pecking at the cliff, so perhaps it is just resting, rather than trying to gather some additional nest material

House Martin: Finally, I've succeeded & found a pair nest-building in view of the top of the cliffs

House Martin: The advantage for this colony is there is plenty of food along the cliff edge, as well as, some breeze to minimise the effort they need to fly

House Martin

21 May 22 - A Brownsea Nightjar

The Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve on Brownsea Island must be one of the best places in the UK to see Nightjars during the day. There is usually a pair with a territory around the Lake Hide. The question when visiting is whether one will be roosting on view from the hide. If that is the case, then the views of this stunning species can be great and there is the opportunity to get some photos during the day without any risk of disturbing them. This is not a species that people should be trying to find on the Dorset Heaths given the risk of disturbance or worse still trampling on eggs or chicks. I've been lucky to see them from the hide on two occasions so far. The first was during one of my erratic visits in 2012. This year I've started volunteering on the DWT reserve on a weekly basis & I hope this will mean I bump into them more often.

Nightjar: Making it very easy to find on this visit (19 May 12)

Nightjar: Still not too hard to find as it had already been pinned down earlier in the day

19 May 22 - A Dorset Moth Tick At Studland

While walking on the path across the Heath between Brands Bay and Jerry's Point, Studland, I flushed a Small Grass Emerald. This is described in the excellent Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Waring, Townsend & Lewington as Nationally Scarce. Its Dorset status is "locally, and usually in small numbers on the Heaths of South East Dorset".

Small Grass Emerald: This is only the second time I've seen this species. The previous occasion was at Beaulieu Road Station (12 June 1983)

14 May 22 - A New Wasp At St Aldhelms

The other highlight at St Aldhelms on the F Cup Day was seeing a new Wasp: Podalonia hirsuta. It isn't hard to see new Wasp species given I've seen very few. The hard part is getting a name to them. In this case, I was lucky as my mate Steve Morrison knows his Wasps and also has a good idea on the status in the Isle of Purbeck.

Steve said "This distinctive Wasp is usually found on sandy soils and most frequent on heathland (at least in Dorset), but not in any great numbers. It's fairly local nationally. It's similar in appearance to Ammophila, but the petiole is shorter and the slope more abrupt where it continues into the abdomen. Ammophila is much more slender and the petiole is much longer. Podalonia is slender in itself, but stocky compared to Ammophila. Podalonia stocks its nest burrow with a single large moth larvae (usually a noctuid). Steve is only aware of a couple of previous records for St Aldhelms".

Podalonia hirsuta: It was digging a burrow out on the path

14 May 22 - Some Late Spring Butterflies

In addition to the Honey Buzzard which I saw arriving in my visit to St Aldhelms, I saw a nice selection of new Butterflies including Small Blue, Small Skipper, Dingy Skipper and several Orange-tips.

Small Blue: I was pleased to see these lovely Blues at two locations in the St Aldhelms patch

Small Skipper

Dingy Skipper: I had seen them the previous week, however, I didn't have the camera with me on that occasion