Heavy going: the lowlights of 2023

I get a lot of satisfaction and reward from birding by bike, but if this blog gives the impression that life is just one long freewheel through glorious sunny countryside, after which I screech to a halt and punch the air on seeing my target bird, I'm afraid that wouldn't be entirely accurate.

Isabelline Wheatear at Seaton Marshes, Devon in December 2022 - only 2 people saw the first Dorset record at Swyre Head on 2 December 2023 and I was not among them! I went the next day in foul weather but it had moved on.

December 2023 was a particularly grim month bird wise. First, it was that time of year when you get up in the dark and finish work in the dark, so opportunities to get out birding were pretty much limited to weekends. Second, familial duties like fetching the first born back from University and visiting relatives (more on which in my next post) further narrowed the bandwidth for getting out on the bike. And third - perhaps most importantly - the birds themselves were few and far between, and those which did turn up were not really available to those of us in the thraldom of wage slavery.

I was watching this Long-tailed Duck at Jerry's Point when news broke of a 'late Wheatear' at Swyre Head on 2nd December

The nadir of the month - and the most painful near miss of the year in fact - came on 2nd December when, with nothing in particular to go for, I headed out mid-morning to Studland to meet up with Phil Saunders, hoping to see some of the decent birds which had been frequenting the waters just off Jerry's Point. We ended up watching freezing fog for several hours, enlivened only when a wintering Long-railed Duck loomed briefly out of the mirk. 

I didn't get the chance to go for the Wyke Down Pallid Harrier by bike - this one was in Somerset in October 2011

We eventually gave up about lunchtime, and although news of a 'late Wheatear' at Swyre Head had filtered through before we left, the grim conditions, and the fact that Northern Wheatear was still the most likely option, put me off the idea of adding an extra 15 miles, and a brutal climb up over the Purbeck ridge, to the journey home. It turned out that Swyre Head was fog-free and had I made the effort I would have been in with a shout of seeing Dorset's first Isabelline Wheatear. 

Black-winged Stilt was one of several species I dipped in Weymouth in 2023 - this one was at Abbotsbury a few years ago

In fact the only person to see it was James Leaver who made the effort to check it out, and if anyone deserved to see such a local rarity it was James who puts in more than his share of legwork to find good birds in the Purbeck area. I went back early the next morning in the hope that it was still there and was first on site - not surprising really as it was hammering down with rain and blowing quite hard, and I gave up after a few hours searching in vain with Jol Mitchell and Steve Smith, returning home like a drowned rat.

Ferruginous Duck is already on the bike list thanks to a bird in Hampshire in 2021 - but this one at Radipole Lake which I drove to see was not present when I went back on the weekend on the bike

The previous month saw me on another very wet ride to Weymouth during which I became a drowned rat with a puncture - though I did at least see my target bird (American Golden Plover) on that occasion. In fact Weymouth turned out to be a bit of a bogey location for me in 2023 - I dipped Richard's and Water Pipit in the area in February, Black-winged Stilt in April, and spent several hours searching in vain for a Purple Heron there in May. I knew there would be a good chance of it being seen towards dusk but I couldn't stay that long so had to await the inevitable posting of superb photos of it in flight as it left Lodmoor for the last time. Later in the year a similar thing happened with the Ferruginous Duck which commuted between Weymouth and Abbotsbury - it was absent on the only day I could get down to Weymouth on the bike, but I did at least see the bird to add to my Dorset list in a mad lunchtime dash via motorised means a few days prior to this.

I saw my first Dorset Purple Heron in Weymouth in October 2012 - but I wasn't as fortunate this year: I spent 4 hours looking for an elusive one at Lodmoor but it flew off a couple of hours after I left.

For all the time I've lived in Dorset a couple of hours at Portland Bill at the right time of year has been enough to see a Great Skua passing on the sea, but such is the decimation of their breeding population by Avian flu I didn't see one this year despite three extended seawatches from the Bill in spring and several more from Durstlon in the autumn. This species was therefore probably the most upsetting omission from the 2023 non-motorised year list. Let's hope they start to recover next year.

No Great Skua for the non-motorised year list in 2023 - this one was on Handa Island in May 2007

On top of dips there were a few frustrations at good birds for which the opportunity to go by bike didn't even arise - any one of the Dorchester Ross's Gull, the Wyke Down Pallid Harrier or the Silverlake/Brand's Bay Blue-winged Teal would have been a bike mega - but looking on the bright side I still saw more than I missed in 2023 and I suppose I have to be grateful for that.

Blue-winged Teal would have been a bike tick, but not a Dorset tick - this female was at Longham in December 2011