Black magic at Longham

Black Terns pass through my local gravel pit at Swineham but usually at a time of year when they are in their winter plumage. As I was attending the end of season party for Wareham Rangers Under-14s last Sunday (played 14, lost 10, drawn 3, won 1 - not their best) three of this species were reported in their summer finery at nearby Longham Lakes.

After the speeches and festivities were over I headed over to check out the Terns. Although spending much of their time roosting on a buoy in the centre of the larger southern lake, they did get up from time to time to feed, giving their shrill calls as they hawked over the surface of the water.

Longham is having one if its purple patches with the Bonaparte's Gull (still present last weekend), Red-rumped Swallow and Osprey being seen in recent weeks. Over the years I have seen Ortolan Bunting, Blue-winged Teal, Penduline Tit, White-rumped Sandpiper and Great White Egret there as well as commoner passage birds like Little Gull, Garganey and Little Ringed Plover. So another good record for the site, and no doubt more to come.

 

Some rare sightings in Purbeck

My old friend Matt Jones, taking a break from showing Kiwis to tourists on Stewart Island, NZ, paid me a visit recently. Having seen to family duties in his native Kent, and attended to business promoting his adopted country's wares at the Rutland Water Birdfair, he was good enough to find the time to squeeze in a visit to Dorset for a day's birding. He was particularly keen to see Osprey, Spoonbill and Yellow-legged Gull for his trip list so we headed straight for Middlebere.

Woodlark on Soldiers Road

Redstart at Middlebere

This is Matt near the Houseboats on Studland. If you are ever fortunate enough to get to Stewart Island on a guided birding trip, there is a good chance he will be showing you around

Dartford Warbler at Middlebere

Before he had taken a seat in the hide I had an Osprey lined up in the telescope. Locating the Spoonbills and Yellow-legged Gull required no optics as they were sat in the channel straight in front of the hide. So that was easy. We took our time wandering the track back to the car picking up a good selection of common migrants, and ended the day stumbling upon a family of Woodlark on Soldiers Road. It was good to catch up as this was only Matt's second visit in 2 years, so he's now officially rarer than White-winged Black Tern in Poole Harbour.

Green Sandpiper at Middlebere

Marsh Harrier at Middlebere

Yellow-legged Gull at Middlebere

Osprey at Middlebere

A couple of nights later, another real rarity was to be found at Swineham, and for one night only: me. Sightings of me there have been almost as rare as sightings of White-winged Black Terns, of which we have had three in three years now. A good run, such that they have been more numerous over that period than the generally commoner Black Tern. So it was good to find one of the latter hawking at the end of the pit. I had it to myself for the 40 minutes or so it was present before it moved out to the Wareham Channel.

Black Tern at Swineham

A moulting adult

More than I deserved after wilful neglect of Swineham in recent months

Less contrast in the upperparts compared to White-winged Black Tern which shows a whiter rump in any plumage

Pirates off Penzance

Skuas provide menace in the supporting cast on pelagic trips with their piratical feeding behaviour, scaring the living shfish out of other seabirds. We saw two species on our mid-August trips out of St Mary's. The most likely to appear, Great Skua (#211), didn't disappoint, and we saw these every day, as they often came in to harass the gulls following in our wake.

Much rarer in our waters is the Pomarine Skua, of which we saw two - a fine, fully-spooned up adult which flew distantly between us and the islands one evening, and a 2nd summer with shorter spoons and stripey underwings which came straight over the top of the boat.

I managed to miss the spring passage of Pom Skuas past Portland despite spending a day there so this was a good one to get back for the photo year list (#213).

Not a skua, obviously, but a final surprise on the day we saw the Fea's Petrel was a diminutive Black Tern following a fishing boat - very well spotted at some distance by Antony Griffiths, it eventually came in close enough for a photo (#214).

Inland seawatching

Swineham Gravel Pits is within walking distance of my new house in Wareham. I found a Little Gull and Black Tern there on Friday night, but with no camera I returned on Saturday to see if they were still around. The Little Gull was but there was no sign of the Tern. Today, however, a Black Tern was present again, and the Little Gull had been joined by a second, plus two Arctic Tern.

My 400mm lens is being repaired, so these pictures were taken with the DSLR attached to a telescope via an adaptor which turns it into the equivalent of an 800mm lens. Not easy with no autofocus and in blustery weather! Pictures from top: Black Tern, Little Gull, Arctic Tern.