Back in the game

A bit of over-indulgence at Christmas followed by a nasty cold last week left me feeling a little out of shape and in need of a long bike ride to blow the cobwebs away. So when a Killdeer - a rare American wader and one of my 'most wanted' - turned up in Ripley just over the border into Hampshire earlier in the week I made plans for an early start on Saturday. Then the information services started reporting that a farm shoot was planned near the Killdeer site on Saturday morning which caused some consternation - 22 miles would be a long way to cycle only to find that the bird had left to dodge the bullets!

Killdeer, Ripley, Hampshire

Serendipitously, my dentist had moved a scheduled appointment from Friday afternoon to Friday morning, clearing a slot in the diary, so I took the opportunity to book the afternoon off and bring forward my plans to head east. With work duties for the day completed or contained by 1300 I was on the road soon after. The forecast was for 20mph SSE winds gusting to 40mph - far from ideal to head ENE on a bike. But we must suffer for our art and reports of the bird's continued presence stiffened my resolve to press on. 

The wind was pretty much behind me for the first 4 miles as I headed north to the Baker's Arms, but was soon in my face as I turned east towards Upton. The sunshine I enjoyed as I left Wareham was soon replaced by angry clouds which, combined with the gusty wind, added a slight sense of foreboding to the mission. Plying a familiar route to the apex of the journey at Alderney, around the half-way mark at 11 miles, Google Maps for bikes then took me on a less well travelled route down the gloriously over-specced cycle motorway on the Wallisdown Road, through the backstreets of the conurbation towards Parley. This turned out to be a good move, as the houses of the suburban jungle proved pretty effective at breaking up the gusts. 

Killdeer, Ripley, Hampshire

The wind returned as I reached the more open landscape near Bournemouth Airport, and the looping route around the southern perimeter fence was a real slog. The runway would have been more direct but, a cursory risk assessment suggested, slightly more dangerous. So onwards I flogged, eventually reaching the Avon Causeway where the bike lanes I had enjoyed for much of the journey until now came to an abrupt halt, exposing me to close passes from commuters on this notorious rat-run. The causeway was living up to its name today: the floods lapped at the road on both sides with scattered patches of juncus poking above the waterline, and the wind howled across the floodplain. With the traffic, it was probably the grimmest part of the journey - imagine the road to Mordor with SUVs and you won't be far off.

On crossing the Avon and then the Ringwood Road I was glad to return to the safety of small country lanes and high hedges to break up the wind, and within 15 minutes I was rolling up to the parked cars of twitchers who had chosen more comfortable means of transport to Ripley. Just four birders were present when I reached the viewing point and one of them was kind enough to let me look through his scope to see the Killdeer and take the pressure off. I could then relax, hunker down behind a barrier for protection from the wind, and get a few record shots of the distant bird which were just about passable with a 1.4 extender attached to my 400mm f5.6 lens.

Killdeer, Ripley, Hampshire

It was clear the Killdeer wasn't coming any closer so after a few more record shots and a change into a fresh shirt for the journey home I began to retrace my steps. With the Killdeer under my belt the journey back across the Avon Causeway took on a new light, and I could admire the beauty of the flooded meadows over which wheeled a huge flock of Lapwing. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the wind was more of a help than a hindrance on the return leg. 

The last hour of the journey was completed in the dark so I was pleased to get home and add the first bike tick of 2026 to the non-motorised list. It goes straight in as one of the rarest birds I have seen travelling under my own steam - up there with last year's Baikal Teal at Abbotsbury, the Forster's Tern which has returned to Poole Harbour every year since 2023, and the Short-toed Eagle which graced nearby Morden Bog back in 2014.

An adult Little Gull on the Ripley Farm Resevoir was bonus for the non-motorised yearlist