Mad March haring around

I was not expecting my 'green' year list (birds seen on foot or by bike) to see too many additions in March and the first week of the month largely lived up to expectations. It was not, however, without incident on the bird front, it was just that some of the best birds were not 'tickable' for the purposes of the year list. Specifically, I had my first encounters with one of the satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagles from the Isle of Wight re-introduction scheme, and a small flock of feral Reeves's Pheasant which are tucked away in various parts of Purbeck.

White-tailed Eagle, Stonehill Down, 1st March

White-tailed Eagle, Stonehill Down, 1 March

Both birds were seen en route to Stonehill Down, an impressive hulk of chalk to the south of Wareham in the care of the Dorset Wildlife Trust, reached by a gruelling climb on the bike which had become one of my preferred lockdown exercise routes some time before the 2021 year list caper began. With reports of the Eagle tantalisingly close to home I headed up after work on 1 March into rapidly fading light, not really expecting to see a giant raptor anywhere in the absence of its beloved thermals. 

Reeves's Pheasant, Blue Pool, 3rd March

Reeves's Pheasant, Blue Pool, 3rd March

I almost didn't bother to stop at the top but bumped in to a local birder, James, who had the harassed look of a man who had been chasing an eagle all afternoon. And sure enough, as we got talking, it emerged that he had been. We were joined after a few minutes by James's cousin Rob, also Eagle-hunting, and, with the sun well below the horizon, we spent a few minutes speculating about where the Eagle might have gone to roost. Just then I spotted a huge shape lumbering up out the valley in the half-light. It was heading straight for us and within seconds was cresting the ridge of the Down just to the west. There was just enough time to grab the camera from the pannier bag and rattle off a couple of silhouetted shots before it headed north - in the general direction of my garden! It was dark by the time I headed home so a Barn Owl flying parallel to the bike on Soldier's Road took the title of the first new bird of the month.

Reeves's Pheasant (female), Blue Pool, 5th March

Reeves's Pheasant, Blue Pool, 5th March

Heading back to the Down a few nights later I stumbled across a couple of male Reeves's Pheasant foraging on the verge which posed obligingly for photos. They were still there a few nights later with a female bird and, triangulating with reports of other locals, we concluded a minimum of five birds (3 males and 2 females) were in the area. A beautiful bird, but not a species considered self-sustaining in the wild, hence not capable of addition to the year list unfortunately.

Mandarin Duck (female), Wareham, 16th March

Barnacle Goose, Rempstone Forest, 21st March

Tick-able wildfowl in March appeared in the form of a flyover pair of Mandarin Duck on the outskirts of Wareham and a lone Barnacle Goose (I suspect the same bird which spent much of the winter at Swineham) hanging out with Canada Geese deep in Rempstone Forest which I bumped into during a long bike ride.

The first Little Ringed Plover of the year was at Swineham on 26th March

Bittern leaving Swineham in the dark (!), 9th March

One of the best new birds for the month required a dusk vigil at Swineham in the hope of seeing a migrant Bittern leaving. These birds don't winter at the site but are thought to use it as a staging post during spring migration, leaving on the cusp of darkness when their characteristic hoarse calls can be heard. I first heard one on 8th but it was too dark to see. Returning on the evening of the 9th produced a sighting as a bird flew overhead before circling high into the night. A single Great White Egret on 26th and a flyover flock of 5 breeding plumage Cattle Egret on 31st made it a good month for rare herons on the patch.

Great White Egret at Swineham on 26th March

3 of 5 Cattle Egret over Swineham on the last day of the month

A few more early migrants - Blackcap on 21st, Little Ringed Plover on 26th, Wheatear on 27th and, most surprisingly, a Sedge Warbler on 31st, my earliest record of this species by some distance - brought the year list up to 139 by the month's end. 

At least 4 singing Firecrests were within cycling distance of home in March

After all the cycling I indulged myself with a short trip to Weymouth to see this Desert Wheatear on 29th March - my first car trip to see a bird in 2021. I couldn't get there before dark on the bike and it was gone the next morning!