The race to 200

When I started the non-motorised year list caper in January, I figured that I could probably see around 170 species if I was prepared to put in a reasonable amount of effort, and 180 at a push. I had an 'easy' target list, a 'possible' list of just over 30 species, and a 'bonus' list of about the same number. The 170 estimate was based on seeing all of the 'easy' list and a few possibles, and 180 on just under half of the 'possibles' and a few of the 'bonuses'. By the end of July, I had in fact seen almost everything on the 'easy' list, almost half of the species from the 'possible' list and, to my surprise, 16 from the 'bonus' list, plus a few species that never even made it onto the 'bonus' list including Whiskered Tern and Tawny Pipit.

Curlew Sandpiper, Lytchett Fields, 5th August

This meant that as August began the list stood at 198, tantalisingly close to the landmark 200 figure. We had a 2 week family holiday booked in Northumberland from 6 August so there wouldn't be much time to get there before we left, but I was keen to give it a go. The first few days of the month offered nothing within reach but the night before we were due to leave a Curlew Sandpiper was found at Lytchett Fields, the site which also delivered my previous year tick, a Wood Sandpiper, at the end of July. 

Although I really should have been packing for the holiday, I was ready to roll soon after finishing work. A quick phone call to volunteer warden Shaun Robson before leaving confirmed that the bird was still present, and I completed the 6 mile journey in a respectable 30 minutes. Shaun was still there but had to break the bad news that he had lost sight of the Curlew Sandpiper minutes before my arrival. Fortunately I was able to re-find the bird - a moulting adult - soon after on a neighbouring pool and my tally moved to 199. 

With Ruff and Little Stint still needed for the year, this was as good a place as any to look for them but try as I might I could not locate either. So 200 would have to wait, and it seemed likely that one of those two species would eventually be the one to get me there.

Brownsea through a variety of lenses

Both my sons have been showing an interest in photography lately so I've been digging out old camera bodies and lenses in the hope of encouraging them. I am thinking that if I can get them hooked now, I will have someone to drive me round in my old age while I sit in the back barking directions. The novelty of having their own cameras helped persuade them that a day trip to Brownsea yesterday would be a good idea, as opposed to their normal Saturday morning routine of slaying elf-lizards on Skyrim.

Taking the slightly complex but more scenic route from Wareham around the south side of Poole Harbour, over on the Studland ferry as foot passengers and to Brownsea via the famous yellow boat from Sandbanks, we got the first one of the morning and were in the hides overlooking the lagoon shortly before 1030. Large numbers of waders were present, the most numerous being Oystercathcer, Black-tailed Godwit and Avocet, flocks of which are building up for the winter.

Two Curlew Sandpipers close in to the Low Hide with a Dunlin behind

Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper on the right with characteristic peachy wash on the breast - with Dunlin for comparison

A very smart wader

Another juvenile Curlew Sand - the peach colouration has faded on this one

Much scarcer among the waders were a few each of Ruff and Curlew Sandpiper, both of which eventually came in close to the hides having initially been viewable only distantly through the telescope. A dozen Spotted Redshank were also hanging out with the Redshank flock.

Spotted Redshank - one of a dozen present

Avocet - part of a flock of almost 200

Black-tailed Godwit - a scaly-backed juvenile

A couple of Ruff were secreted amongst the Godwits

In truth, despite my efforts to tool them up with half-decent camera gear, the boys didn't take many photos of birds - they spent most of the time at opposite ends of the generously appointed hides photographing each other, or spraying imaginary bullets around using the camera's high speed burst mode to simulate semi-automatic assault rifles. Charming. But they did seem to appreciate the compelling nature of wildlife photography eventually when a tame Red Squirrel allowed a close approach near the Villa. A kindly soul had left a few nuts out and it kept returning to eat a few and bury the rest.

A flock of at least 25 Spoonbill was present - looking unusually awake here...

...and even more lively here

Red Squirrel

A slightly messy eater

A wader week

My travels over half-term enabled me to catch up with some common and some rarer members of my favourite family of birds: the waders. Diverse, colourful, and capable of amazing migrations, and, in the case of rare ones, generally untainted by the possibility of escapes from cages like songbirds or collections like the waterfowl!

This stunning summer plumaged Curlew Sandpiper was at Titchfield Haven in Hampshire (#192)

Superb views from the Meon Shore hide

An arctic breeder, Curlew Sandpiper winters mostly in Africa

Also at Titchfield Haven, the Greater Yellowlegs, a very rare vagrant from America - I couldn't resist going back for seconds

The plumage has advanced significantly since I first saw this bird in April. Compare the bolder, darker streaking on the head, neck and flanks with...

...this shot taken on 11th April. They breed in the boreal regions of Canada and Alaska and migrate as far south as South America

Also along the coast from the Yellowlegs, this tiny Red-necked Phalarope (#193) spent a day at Sidlesham Ferry Pool in West Sussex. Here with a much larger Black-tailed Godwit

I arrived late in the day when the bird was distant and against the light. A few pairs breed on the northern and western isles - one fitted with a geolocator clocked up a 16,000-mile round trip during its annual migration, flying from Shetland across the Atlantic via Iceland, south down the eastern  US, across the Caribbean and ending up off the coast of Ecuador and Peru

On leaving Bempton last week, I went to Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire where a pair of Black-winged Stilts had appeared

This is the female

And here the pair - male on the right. A widespread species across Europe, Asia and the Mediterranean, 'our' birds are thought to come from populations on the near continent

Commoner waders at Frampton included Lapwing...

This Lapwing was at Titchfield Haven

Redshank, Frampton Marsh. A Temminck's Stint and a White-rumped Sand passed through the day after I did!

Avocets seemed to be doing well wherever I went - they were breeding successfully at Blacktoft Sands in Yorkshire, Frampton Marsh in Lincs and Titchfield Haven in Hampshire

This bird at Titchfield, photographed from the same hide as the Curlew Sandpiper at the start of this post, appeared to be making a nest scrape

 

Taking the Semi-P

A Semipalmated Sandpiper was found late on Sunday at Abbotsbury Swannery by Steve Groves and what was presumably the same bird relocated to Brownsea Island on Monday. This was possibly the first British rarity identified by webcam when Paul Morton picked it up on the well-positioned Birds of Poole Harbour camera in the Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve from his office in Poole. (Imagine the possibilities if I could rig one up at Swineham: I wouldn't even have to get up in the morning, I could just pan and zoom with a cup of tea in bed.)

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Back to the Semi-P, on which there was no news either way from Brownsea this morning, despite having Paul on webcam alert, so with the afternoon booked off I thought I had better go and look for myself in case it was skulking at the back of the lagoon and flew in to parade in front of the hide as it had done yesterday afternoon. As my foot touched the island's quay, and a cheery National Trust volunteer offered his greetings, the pager bleeped 'Dorset SEMIPALMATED SAND...'. Thoughts of 'Bingo!' were quickly dispelled when I read the rest of the message: '...Abbotstbury Swannery'.

Semipalmated Sandpiper with Dunlin behind - note size difference

I pressed on to the lagoon where I was able to satisfy myself that there was no chance of a second bird still on Brownsea, and resolved that an 'interesting small wader' which some visiting birders had been studying was a fairly regulation juvenile Dunlin. I considered baling and heading for Abbotsbury, concluding that to leave Brownsea on such a beautiful day would be criminal, and to then head to the other end of Dorset for a county-tick would just be ludicrous. Ludicrous, but not impossible...

Semi-P top left with Dunlin and Curlew Sandpipers

Arriving at one minute to four (last entry), I reasoned that it would be worth shelling out the entrance fee if the bird was in front of the Meadow Pool hide with the sun behind me, rather than viewing cheaply but distantly from the road into the sun. A good decision: it was walking directly in front of several grinning birders in the hide just as I walked in.


Curlew Sandpiper

 

Home Alone II

More photos from last weekend spent Home Alone. Like most sequels, shorter, and with an even thinner plot line. Ferrybridge is always worth a stop for waders:

Ringed Plover

Turnstone

Dunlin

Sanderling - a juvenile, photographed in evening light

Balearic Shearwaters have been moving past Portland Bill - this photo helps explain why I am such an impatient seawatcher

A Wasp Spider was doing what it says on the tin at Radipole Lake - despatching a wasp

Fancied a change of scene on Bank Holiday Monday so headed for Pennington Marshes in Hampshire where Curlew Sandpipers were among the waders I hoped to see - two were present

The Butts Lagoon is fringed with vegetation, but there is one small gap giving a clear view from the path to the exposed mud and shallows where waders were feeding, so I sat there and waited

Eventually the Curlew Sands - both scaly juvs - honed into view

While focused on the Curlew Sands I became aware of something closer in my peripheral vision - first one, then two previously unnoticed Little Stint had walked across the gap

This view shows the prominent white stripes down the back which help identify this as a juvenile Little Stint

A tiny wader, I don't think I've been this close to one before

Whimbrel was near the Keyhaven end of Pennington Marshes

Whimbrel

Also a Curlew there...

...and a small flock of Black-tailed Godwit