I first cycled the 10 miles to Dancing Ledge to see Puffins in 2020 and the trip has now become an annual pilgrimage. With such a tiny colony, there is always the worry that one year they won't come back but a beautiful evening on 20th May offered an opportunity to check and I was not to be disappointed as 2 birds were present. The return journey through Rempstone Forest also brought my first Tree Pipit and Nightjar of the year.
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| Puffin, Dancing Ledge, 20th May |
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| Shag, Dancing Ledge, 20th May |
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| Puffin pair, Dancing Ledge, 20th May |
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| Puffin, Dancing Ledge, 20th May |
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| Guillemot, Dancing Ledge, 20th May |
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| Guillemot, Dancing Ledge, 20th May |
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| Bridled Guillemot, Dancing Ledge, 20th May |
As the month's end approached I had a week off work and grand plans for some ambitious bike rides. The first of these took me on a tour of the New Forest, where Wood Warbler eventually became my 6th 'bike tick' of 2023. Discretion prevents the disclosure of further details, such is the precipitous decline of this species as a breeding bird in the area. While hearing the singing bird was sufficient to add it to the list, it took 90 minutes of patient waiting to get a brief view of it moving between the trees from which it was singing as I kept a respectful distance. But with such a beautiful song it was no hardship to just stand and listen.
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| Hairy Dragonfly, Morden Bog, 21st May |
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| Juvenile Starling in the garden, 21st May |
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| Reed Warbler, Swineham, 21st May |
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| Redstart, Morden Bog, 21st May |
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| Pheasant, Bestwall, 21st May |
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| Juvenile Long-tailed Tit, Bestwall, 21st May |
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| 3 of 4 Little Ringed Plover at Swineham, 21st May |
It was a long journey home but there was enough daylight to call in at Blashford Lakes on the way where another warbler - Garden - proved much easier to see. The excellent Castleman Trailway spirited me most of the way to Wareham for, at 65 miles, one of my longest journeys of the year to date. After a couple of day's rest which included a meet up with the parents on Exmoor, where Dippers and Whinchats were good to see, I was off again, back to Hampshire on the bike to Keyhaven Marshes where three potential year ticks were available - Temminck's Stint, Little Stint and Black Tern.
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| Spotted Flycatcher, Wareham, 22nd May |
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| Med Gull, Wareham, 22nd May |
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| Lapwing, Swineham, 22nd May |
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| 2 of 3 Ringed Plover at Swineham, 23rd May - a rare bird at Swineham |
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| A young Long-tailed Tit at Swineham, 23rd May |
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| This summer-plumaged Dunlin arrived at Swineham with the Ringed Plover on 23rd |
On arrival at Keyhaven, the phone rang, as it often seems to when I am miles from home, with news of the latest domestic mini-crisis. Usually it's lost keys, car trouble or power cuts, none of which I am in a position to do much about when several hours from home on a bike. Today it was plumbing, and a shower with a dodgy faucet which wouldn't turn off. How the rest of the family, with its 90+ years of collective life experience, has yet to discover the stopcock, is beyond me, but I talked them through it like NASA bringing Apollo 13 safely back to earth, complete with beads of sweat on my forehead - though they were down to having cycled 33 miles rather than existential stress.
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| Swallow, Wareham Forest, 27th May |
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| Swallow, Wareham Forest, 27th May |
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| Swallow, Wareham Forest, 27th May |
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| Swallow, Wareham Forest, 27th May |
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| Red Kite, Wareham Forest, 27th May |
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| Red Kite, Wareham Forest, 27th May |
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| Red Kite, Wareham Forest, 27th May |
With catastrophic flood damage averted, I returned to the original mission: stints. Disappointingly, the Temminck's could not be found by me or several other assiduous locals who had been looking before I arrived. As I chatted with my friend Loy and family, though, they pointed out the Little Stint, a very bright individual which flew before I could assemble my camera. Nice, but no cigar, so I mooched on around the sea wall to look out into the Solent for the Black Terns which had been there the previous day. To my surprose I latched on to one almost straight away so the trip was already proving worthwhile with 2 of my 3 targets for the day seen.
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| Garden Warbler, Blashford Lakes, 28th May |
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| Garden Warbler, Blashford Lakes, 28th May |
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| Garden Warbler, Blashford Lakes, 28th May |
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| Garden Warbler, Blashford Lakes, 28th May |
A countryside ranger pulled up in a van to see what I was looking at but we couldn't relocate the Black Tern. I was very pleased to see him though as shortly after I followed him back towards the Fishtail Lagoon where he relocated the Temminck's Stint! It's possible it was there along as its tiny stature and crouched, deliberate feeding posture made it easy to overlook.
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| Whinchat, Dunkery Beacon, Exmoor, 30th May |
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| Whinchat, Dunkery Beacon, Exmoor, 30th May |
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| Stonechat, Dunkery Beacon, Exmoor, 30th May |
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| Dipper on the River Lyn, Devon, 30th May |
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| Dipper on the River Lyn, Devon, 20th May |
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| Dipper on the River Lyn, Devon, 30th May |
Eiders and Little Terns added to the day's highlights whilst Shelducklings and Avocet chicks provided cuteness overload. It had been a successful last day of May adding all 3 target species to the year list in 69 miles of cycling. This brought the total for the month to 11 - a decent return for 306 miles cycled - and for the year to 191, still a few species ahead of 'par' compared to the previous two years.
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| Shelduck, Keyhaven, 31st May |
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| Little Tern, Keyhaven, 31st May |
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| Avocet, Keyhaven, 31st May |
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Terrible photo of Temminck's Stint but you get the idea - Keyhaven, 31st May
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