(A complete absence of) April showers: part 1

No month can compete with January for additions to a year list, but April is expected to come a good second as spring migrants arrive in numbers. As my fitness improved, the distance I was prepared to cycle increased accordingly, opening up new possibilities to increase my tally during the month and to target species further afield which I was unlikely to see just mooching around the patch. 

Red-rumped Swallow at St Aldhelm's Head - a highlight of early April

Red-rumped Swallow, St Aldhelm's Head, 4th April

I figured at the start of the year that restricting the list to birds seen walking or cycling would impose a 'natural' limit on how far I was likely to go of about 10 miles, but resolved not to impose an arbitrary limit, as, if I was willing to make the effort to go further, any new bird would seem a legitimate addition. And there would be a certain natural justice in linking the physical effort expended to the reward in the form of an addition to the list.

Skylark, St Aldhelm's Head, 4th April

Skylark, St Aldhelm's Head, 4th April

The month started well with a perched Osprey eating a fish on 2nd. With various reintroduction schemes underway the 'tickability' of Osprey might now be open to question but this unringed bird at Middlebere had the necessary credentials to make the grade. The next day saw me back in Wareham Forest adding two more species: a Marsh Tit sneezing its way around a patch of wet woodland and an early Tree Pipit giving an electronic buzz from an isolated pine. 

Marsh Tit, Wareham Forest, 3rd April

Osprey, Middlebere, 2nd April

I took full advantage of the long Easter weekend with a pilgrimage to the Purbeck Coast on the Sunday. I had arranged to meet Phil Saunders at St Aldhelm's Head around 0700 hoping to benefit from his top bird-finding skills. He had elected for a more sensible means of transport and overtook me in his car puffing my way towards Worth Matravers - but I had already made a good start by then with a Willow Warbler in the half-light of Soldier's Road being my first of the year. 

Grey Partridges, St Aldhelm's Head, 4th April

Corn Bunting, St Aldhelm's Head, 4th April

One of my targets at St Aldhelm's was Grey Partridge, a difficult bird anywhere in Purbeck, best seen here in the quiet of early morning before the tourists arrive. On meeting Phil at the car park I was therefore a bit dismayed to see a party of dog walkers already returning from the Head. All was soon forgiven though as they flushed a pair of Grey Partridge into the field next to us! A singing Corn Bunting on the way out to the Head chalked up another target for the day and a smart migrant male Redstart at Trev's Quarry was added to the year list sooner than I expected. 

Redstart, St Aldhelm's Head, 4th April

Black Redstart, St Aldhelm's Head, 4th April

We spent an enjoyable couple of hours birding the area and met up with another friend, Steve Smith, checking out the quarried ledges below the Coastguards where a male and female Black Redstart entertained us on the cliff edge. I was about 50 yards away from the others when I heard Phil shout 'Red-rumped Swallow!'. I looked over to see them pointing to a patch of sky which was out of view from my angle so there was nothing for it but to sprint to the their location (not easy after an 11 mile bike ride) and hope the bird was still on view. Fortunately it was, and I managed a couple of record shots of it in flight before we scrambled up from the ledge to the coast path to find the bird perched on a fence.

Brown Hare, St Aldhelm's Head, 4th April

My trusty bike at St Aldhelm's Coastguard, 4th April

Some joggers were approaching the Swallow and we persuaded them to hold back while I attempted to get more photos against the light. One of them tried to snatch their own photo with a camera-phone which was too much for the Swallow and it took off to head inland. Red-rumped Swallow was not even on my 'maybe' list at the start of the year so this was a massive bonus for me as well as a feather in Phil's cap for another excellent find.

Pied Wagtail, Wareham, 5th April

Yellow Wagtail (and Green Sandpiper), Swineham, 7th April

It was still only lunchtime so I bid farewell to Steve and Phil and headed east along the Pilgrim's Way to Spyway Barn, where I locked up the bike and wandered down to Dancing Ledge in the hope of seeing at least one member of Dorset's tiny Puffin colony. It wasn't to be but distant views of a flock of Kittiwakes and a fly-past Whimbrel were both new for the year. A seven tick day which felt like just reward after a 29-mile bike ride, and the latter species bringing up the satisfying milestone of 150 for the year.

Not eligible for the non-motorised year list, as cycling to Portland Castle would have been a bit much at this point so I drove down, but this delightful Pied Flycatcher put on a great show early in the month

Friday fun

We interrupt this ruthlessly chronological series of posts catching up on my non-motorised year listing escapades to bring actual news i.e. less than 72 hours old. As the long May Day Bank Holiday weekend approached my ambition was increasing with my stamina, and I resolved to make the long bike ride to Portland on the Saturday.

Then news broke around Friday lunchtime of a pair of Black-winged Stilts at Lodmoor. This would be an excellent addition to the year list but the question was, should I wait until the next day and hope they were still there so I could see them en route to Portland? Or go after work and be more certain of success? It had been a tiring week - how much Zoom can a man take? - and I wasn't planning on ending it with a 35 mile bike ride but, equally, with the lighter evenings I calculated I ought to be able to make it there and back before dark. It was a pair of Black-winged Stilts, after all, so I resolved to make the effort.

With mind made up, a goal to aim for and all the steep hills being downhill on the way there, I made good time, leaving home at 1715 and arriving shortly after 1830 - slow by pro-cycling standards obviously, but quick by mine, and I almost triggered the 'lower your speed' sign on the way down into Weymouth.

On arrival at the north end of Lodmoor I almost cycled past the small group of familiar faces watching the bird, so well camouflaged were they, but their massive lenses gave them away and they kindly pointed out the Stilts and proudly showed me their Stilt-porn photos of the copulating pair. I didn't witness any such funny business but the Stilts did a tour of the pools and gave pretty good, if distant, views. I snatched some record shots and headed off, conscious of the long way home and the slow puncture I noticed on the way down, but didn't have time to stop for, and which had thus far held its own.

The sprint down to Lodmoor had made me a bit peckish, and being an elite athlete now, I was mindful of the need to treat my body with respect. So as I began the long climb out of Weymouth, supper at the excellent Preston chippy seemed the obvious choice. Duly fortified with grease, I headed up with gusto until indigestion enforced a steadier pace. 

With the pressure off, I could enjoy the little things on the ride home, like the newish stretch of tarmac east of Osmington Mills - smooth as a baby's bum, it was like a personal gift from Dorset Council to my own posterior and the bike positively purred along. Even when it came to an abrupt end with a pothole in Poxwell the occupants of a roadside Rookery cheered me on. And the sunset over Tadnoll and Winfrith Heath -  part of Egdon Heath in Thomas Hardy's novels - was redolent of one of his works, or would have been but for the field of Alpacas and caravans against the backdrop of the decommissioned nuclear reactor, none of which I guess were around in his day. As dusk fell I eschewed the main road from Wool to Wareham for the safer and more southerly scenic route along National Cycle Route 2. Mist was forming at waist height in the Frome Valley and a Skylark sang into the last of the light.

As the refreshing effects of chip fat wore off, I hit 'the wall' and progress slowed still further. Then the slow puncture became a fast one when I was two miles from home. I had forgotten to bring my little tube of nitrous oxide for rapid tyre reflation which is probably for the best as I would have been tempted to inhale it rather than use it on the bike. And it was too late and too dark to bother changing the inner tube so after pumping it up a couple of times, diminishing returns eventually kicked in and I pushed the bike for the last half a mile. But although I had limped home, the gamble had paid off: the Stilts were gone the next morning, and I could add another top drawer species to the list of birds seen travelling under my own steam. 

At the start of 2021, I calculated that I could get to 170 by the end of the year. The Stilts brought the list to this number by the end of April, so it seems I had underestimated both the potential and myself in terms of how far I would be willing to go to add to the total.

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!

Early migrants

At first glance February appeared to offer limited prospects for adding to my 2021 non-motorised (walking and cycling only) year list. But with a week off at half-term there was always the chance of sweeping up some species which I had missed in January. Unbelievably, these included Skylark which had somehow evaded me at Swineham in January. The patch also produced the year's first Green Sandpiper and Jack Snipe in February, as well as the two star birds of the month: a dainty adult Little Gull which spent over a week on the Piddle Valley floods, and a lovely winter plumaged Red-throated Diver which treated us to an extended stay on the River Frome.

Red-throated Diver, River Frome nr Wareham, 14th Feb

Red-throated Diver, River Frome nr Wareham, 14th Feb

The Diver, found by Garry Hayman and family, was unusually far upriver towards Wareham town centre, and interrupted the traditional Valentine's Day argument about why one of us no longer gets a card (point of order: the 'one of us' is me) and gave me the perfect excuse to storm out in an apparent huff. But only after donning wellies, waterproofs (it was raining cats and dogs) bins and camera, which, by the time I was ready to leave, had rather dampened the dramatic impact of my strop. Attempting to photograph the Diver well became something of an obsession for the rest of February half-term week. When preening or resting on the surface it could show incredibly well, but when feeding (which was most of the time) it could appear 100 metres or more away and lead the would-be viewer on a merry dance - a merry dance in wellies up and down the Somme-like bank of the Frome which caused my calf muscles to scream on more than one occasion.

Little Gull, Piddle Valley, 22nd Feb

Little Gull, Piddle Valley, 22nd Feb

The Little Gull required much less effort, having been located on 22nd by my friend and fellow Swineham regular Trevor Warwick, who was having a good month as he also discovered a Ring-necked Duck on one of the gravel pits, presumed to be one of the Binnegar birds which I saw in January. I went to look for it and stumbled across a second Ring-necked Duck - obviously the other Binnegar bird relocating. Thanks to Trevor's prompt passing on of news I was able to see both the Little Gull and the Ring-necked Duck on the day of their appearance in the sliver of daylight between finishing work and dusk.

Two female Ring-necked Ducks (with Tufted Duck), Swineham, 13th Feb

Jack Snipe, Swineham, 13th Feb

The Little Gull was still present and performing well on the evening of the 26th and as I watched it I was surprised and delighted to see the joyous shapes of the first Sand Martin and Swallow of the year bouncing over the flood meadows of the Piddle Valley - my earliest records of both species at Swineham. Wareham Forest became a favoured haunt of mine during the lockdown of last spring, and February saw me back there to add Yellowhammer and a bonus Red Kite on 28th as my last new birds of the month, bringing the year list to 129 species.

First Sand Martin of the year - 26th Feb

First Swallow of 2021 - 26th Feb

I haven't kept any kind of year list for, well, years, so it was amusing to be reminded how doing so requires one to do silly things like twitching a local Red-legged Partridge, again thanks to prompt news from Trevor - not an easy bird in these parts. Heading out to Holme Lane to see it brought the added bonus of a Merlin scudding over the gravel pit - a species which had eluded me in January. More worthy of a twitch was the 22-strong flock of another local scarcity, Golden Plover, discovered by Marcus Lawson on 12th a short bike ride away at Holton Lee. I snaffled them up with a late evening two-wheeled sprint, like an unfit, old, slow version of Mark Cavendish. In wellies. On a crap bike.

Golden Plover, Holton Lee, 12th Feb

Getting serious

What started as a New Year's Day 'green' bird race challenge - to see/hear as many avian species as possible travelling only on foot or by bike - has become something of a preoccupation as curiosity about just how many species I could chalk up in a year got the better of me. So much so that I though I should create some kind of record of the effort in this neglected corner of the internet. 

Scaup (female), Brands Bay, 17th January

Scaup (male), Brands Bay, 17th January

Clearly there is some catching up to do so, as my last post ended the first day of 2021 on 94 species, and bitter recriminations about how it could have been 100 but for mechanical hitches with the bike, let's start with a look back at the rest of January.

Firecrest at Arne, 3rd January

Crossbill, Morden Bog, 9th January

The weekend of 2nd-3rd January before the return to work saw me get to the 100 mark with the addition of Snipe, Marsh Harrier, Linnet, Spotted Redshank, Spoonbill and Firecrest - all species which should have been possible with a bit more time on 1st January - with visits to my local patch at Swineham, Arne and Middlebere. 

Grey Wagtail, Wareham, 10th January

Slavonian Grebe, Jerry's Point, 17th January

The following weekend I made my first visit of the year to Morden Bog, where Crossbill was easily added, and my second to Studland, failing for the second time in 2021 to locate the distant Long-tailed Ducks. It was a grim day with only Kestrel added to the year list, and a reminder after the tick-fest of New Year's Day that a year long effort would likely include some frustrations and fallow periods.

Black-necked Grebes, Studland, 23rd January

Sanderling, Studland, 23rd January

Still, I persevered, and a third long slog through Rempstone Forest to Studland on 23rd finally paid off, with views not only of the distant Long-tailed Ducks, but the addition of Greenshank, Sandwich Tern, Rock Pipit, Med Gull and Knot to the tally. The following day presented the first opportunity of the year for a bike-twitch of a minor rarity when Dave Foot discovered a couple of Ring-necked Ducks tucked away off the Puddletown Road, just 3 miles from home. I was there early on 24th to see them, adding Woodlark and Kingfisher to the list in the process. 

Ring-necked Duck, Binnegar, 24th January

Ring-necked Ducks, Binnegar, 24th January

The addition of a local Brambling with a finch flock at Holme Lane brought the list to 116 by the end of January. I wasn't expecting much in February, having done pretty well in January, and it being too early for migration - or so I thought. Stand by for details in the next post.

Cetti's Warbler on Wareham Common on the last day of the month

Happy New Hips!

Local birders are going 'green' for this year's New Year bird race, eschewing motorised transport for their rusty bicycles and shank's ponies. Having been cycling a fair bit lately I thought I would give it a crack, starting around 0730 with my first stop at Bestwall where calling Cetti's and flying Water Rail obliged. Then just as my Stock Dove stake-out site was delivering, my rear brake cable snapped! Cycling on ice with only a front brake seemed a tad reckless so I returned home to assess the options, the least worst of which was to ditch the road bike for a 20-year old mountain bike gathering dust at the back of the shed - better off-road but not so comfortable on it.

The old bike needed a bit of fixing up with panniers etc for the telescope and tripod so an hour or so had been wasted in total before I tazzed back to Swineham as per the original plan. Most of the common duck, a tittering Grebe and a Bearded Tit were some reward but not the hoped for Marsh Harrier or Snipe. Friends who live en route at 'Curlews' had been under strict instruction to top up their feeders the night before, delivering an easy Nuthatch, Coal Tit and the only Pheasant of the day. A pair of Egyptian Geese has been spending time in their garden but not this morning, so next stop (after drive-by Fieldfare on the rugby pitch) was Holme Lane where three were seen, along with Pintail.

Then for the long slog to Durlston (via Norden sewage works for Chiffchaff, Grey Wag plus bonus Jay, Mistle Thrush and Redwing). The journey was punctuated by a Treecreeper flying a few feet from my face across the road in Harman's Cross - back of the net! The hill up to Durlston was a killer - the only one all day that forced me to dismount and push the bike - but once there, after a slow start, Guillemot, Gannet, Shag, Peregrine and a perky Black Redstart appeared. Time was running out so I had to give up on hopes of a Razorbill, Kittiwake or Fulmar, and was disappointed not to find a Rock Pipit. Swanage seafront similarly drew a blank with the latter, 

Having resisted the lure of chips in Swanage, my first meal of the day came after another hip-replacement inducing slog up to Studland, and consisted of Xmas leftovers at Middle Beach where both Black-necked and Slavonian Grebe were ticked. Brands Bay offered four Scaup plus a host of roosting waders but it took a 20-minute vigil at Jerry's Point to see Grey and Ringed Plover, plus Dartford Warbler, Stonechat, a couple of Common Scoter, a dozen Goldeneye and a trio of Great Northern Diver (plus a brace of Slavs fresh in). 

The wintering Long-Tailed Ducks proved a bridge too far and the light was now fading so I had to ditch plans to look for Purple Sandpiper at the ferry terminal and make tracks via the off-road route through Rempstone to Middlebere, which I had originally hoped to reach about 1500. A fiddly chain problem delayed me still further and it was gone 1600 by the time I arrived so I saw none of my targets for the site: the brake cable debacle had cost me dearly. A Tawny Owl calling from the darkness of Arne Moors was the last bird of the day - a total of 94 species heard or seen, or 95 if I count the obviously wild Fulvous Whistling Duck at Swineham...

I arrived home at 1800 and the day ended as it had begun - with plans for a long soak scuppered by there being no hot water! A couple of bottles of 'Forgotten Orchard' from the excellent Purbeck Cider Company later though, and the aches and pains are all, well, forgotten. 

Having seen no Woodpeckers or Harriers, nor Spoonbill, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Snipe, Knot, Purple Sand, Med Gull (!), Kingfisher, Parakeet, Skylark, Woodlark, Yellowhammer or Rock Pipit, 100 species on this circuit is definitely do-able and I might even have made it myself but for brake-break-gate. Still, after about 30 miles cycled/walked, a decent winter 'own steam' bird-race entry I hope, for the over-50s category at least ;-)

Peregrine Falcon - reliable on the cliffs at Durlston (pic from last year)