Peter Moore's Wildlife Blog

I have been a bit remiss this year in posting news of progress with the 2025 non-motorised year list - I know you will have lost sleep over this - so here goes with a re-cap on the first quarter of the year.

Snow Bunting, Hamworthy, 4th January

Brent Goose (juvenile), Baiter Park, 4th January

Brent Goose, Baiter Park, 4th April

Black-throated Diver, Whitecliff Park, 4th January

As I recounted in my tribute to urban birding on the north shore of Poole Harbour, January got off to a cold damp flyer with my second visit to Hamworthy in two days/years to see a fearless Snow Bunting on both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Potentially tricky species added on a trip to Studland on the 3rd included Long-tailed Duck and Eider but the first real quality came in the middle of the month when a Lesser Scaup was located at Longham Lakes. I headed over at the earliest opportunity on the 19th for my first bike tick of the year.

Eider, Studland, 3rd January - a good bird for the year list so early in the year

Lesser Scaup, Longham Lakes, 19th January - first bike tick of 2025

Lesser Scaup, Longham Lakes, 19th January

Pochard, Longham Lakes, 19th January

The most ambitious journey of the month took me to my most westerly location so far this year - Abbotsbury, via Dorchester and my favourite automatic strawberry milk vending machine in Martinstown. Before reaching either of these locations, however, the day got off to a great start with a roadside Marsh Tit in Oakers Wood and a drake Goosander at Pallington Lakes. Whooper Swan was my main target at the Swannery but, viewing distantly from New Barn Road, there was no sign of one for over an hour. Then a whooping noise gave the game away as the visiting wild bird appeared from behind a bush and chased the resident (presumed escaped) bird around for a bit. Or perhaps it was the other way around - either way, it was enough to add the species to the year list!

Route of my most ambitious bike ride of the year at that point (25th January)

Golden Plover, Lodmoor, 25th January

Glossy Ibis, Chickerell, 25th January

Despite grilling the duck flock I failed to find a long-staying Scaup but I did see a couple more Long-tailed Duck before heading down the coast to Chickerell where a Glossy Ibis was seen without difficulty. The Golden Plover flock at Lodmoor on the way home was another good bird on the 56 mile journey. The month ended with the year list on 99 species and 158 miles cycled.

Skylark, Tarrant Rushton, 9th February

White-tailed Eagle, Tarrant Keynston, 9th February

Hawfinch, Lytchett Matravers, 15th February

Grey Wagtail (female), Maiden Newton, 22nd February

Grey Wagtail (male), 22nd February

February was a cold, grey month which provided little incentive to get out on the bike but what effort I did make was reasonably successful, adding good birds like Ruff (Middlebere), Short-eared Owl, Barnacle Goose (both Arne Moors) and Jack Snipe (Wareham Common). The month also produced my first big dip of the year with a 38 mile yomp up to Witchampton failing to produce the hoped for Hawfinch, and a detour via Tarrant Rushton on the way home failing to produce any partridges or Corn Buntings. A close encounter with a released White-tailed Eagle was the highlight of that particular day.

Dipper, Maiden Newton, 1st March

Hen Harrier, Middlebere, 2nd March

I stopped briefly at Lytchett Matravers church on the way home from Witchampton where I had seen Hawfinch previously - but obviously didn't look hard enough as one was found the next day by Ian Ballam! I had to wait until the following weekend to go back for that but fortunately it lingered and offered reasonable views.

Cirl Bunting (male) on the Purbeck coast

Cirl Bunting (female) on the Purbeck coast

Red Kite, Durlston, 9 March

Red Kite, Durlston, 9th March

The day after returning from a February half-term trip to the Netherlands I made my annual pilgrimage to Maiden Newton to look for Dipper - I arrived a few minutes after one had been seen but spent the next five hours seeing nothing before reluctantly having to head for home, letting the train take the strain from Dorchester, an indulgence I allow myself only if I don't see my target species. The year list moved on to 121 with 156 miles cycled for the month.

Stonechat, Durlston, 9th March

Ring-necked Parakeet, Swanage, 9th March

Firecrest, Swineham, 16 March

Bearded Tit, Swineham, 22nd March

Chiffchaff, Swineham, 29th March

It was March (the 1st in fact) before I got chance to try again for Dipper and although I went much earlier in the day it was almost a repeat of the first attempt with another 4 hour vigil going unrewarded. Just as I was contemplating doing something more productive with my life a Dipper dropped in to bathe in the Frome and all was forgiven! Claire was away on a hen weekend so the same evening I headed out to Swineham with Phil Saunders and Trevor Warwick to look for Bittern. Just as it was getting too dark to see, Phil picked up a distant bird flying into the Piddle Valley of which Trevor and I only managed an untickable view - but fortunately it (or another) flew back up the River Frome and straight over our heads.

Willow Warbler, Swineham, 29th March

Hen Harrier, Swineham, 29th March

Little Ringed Plover, Swineham, 20th March

Dotterel, Ferrybridge, 28th March

Cirl Bunting just seems to get easier and easier in Dorset and I added this species to the yearlist in February at the first attempt. Later in the month I caught up with what we think is the last remaining Ring-necked Parakeet in Purbeck, which has become very wary since its congeners were reportedly shot - it has taken to hiding in a hole in a lamp-post whose location had probably best not be shared! The 15th saw me cross the Hampshire border on the bike for the first time this year to see a Water Pipit at Blashford Lakes - only to find that 2 were reported on my patch at Swineham the same day! A visit the following day was repaid with the first 'proper' spring migrant in the form of a Little Ringed Plover, and the following weekend another visit was rewarded with close views of 3 Bearded Tit.

Dotterel, Ferrybridge, 28th March

Things picked up in the latter part of the month on the migrant front but unfortunately I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, being at a family celebration in Somerset when the returning Forster's Tern reappeared at Arne on 23rd. As we came back over the downs between Yeovil and Dorchester the sun was shining brilliantly and I thought I might get a shot at seeing it if I headed straight for Arne on reaching home: the first rain drop hit my face as I left the house and by the time I arrived I was a drowned rat with a bad temper. Needless the say the Tern did not reappear, though it was seen both of the next 2 days when I was at work in London.

A Purbeck Tawny Owl in late March

Tawny Owl

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (male), New Forest - a rare bit of brown birding on 30th March on the way home from visiting family in Hampshire

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, New Forest, 30th March

Green Woodpecker, New Forest, 30th March

I went down again early on the Wednesday before work but the Tern had gone overnight and was seen later that day in Lancashire. After dipping it 8 times last year over a period of 17 hours, and twice this year, it was starting to gather bogey bird status and I assumed I had blown it for another year. To rub salt in, during that same three day period when I was away from home I missed a reported Bonaparte's Gull and two Blue-headed Wagtails on the Swineham patch.

Osprey, Shipstal Point, 31st March

Stock Dove, New Forest, 30th March

An evening dash after work for a photogenic Dotterel at Ferrybridge on 28th March added a soothing balm to the sores left by the Forster's Tern. On 31st and extraordinary opportunity for atonement arose when the Forster's Tern appeared at noon on Brownsea, having last been seen 222 miles away in Lancashire at 1930 the night before. I was working all day but an evening return to Shipstal Point seemed worth a punt, and at 1830 I picked up a distant tern in the Middlebere Channel which could only be the Forster's. It eventually gave a close flypast to confirm my assumption. The first Osprey of the year, an unringed bird, also flew overhead to make for a memorable end to the month, bringing the year list to 144 - comfortably ahead of the 139 I reached at the same stage in my record year of 2021.