Winter on the wing

I'm not a huge fan of rugby, but I do love the Six Nations. I went to a grammar school where the games master was sadistically fond of the game, to the extent that when, after a rare football match enabled me to show a turn of pace and score a couple of decent goals, instead of letting me start a team, he said he wanted to see me run down the wing like that in rugby.

Golden Plover, Maiden Castle

I was able to photograph these birds from the car window, using the car as a hide

Momentarily inspired, at the next available training opportunity I gave it a shot, regaining consciousness a few minutes later with a mouth full of dirt and the fat kid who had pummelled my head into the turf laughing over me. Thus ended a glittering rugby career, forsaken thereafter for cross-country, known in our school as 'the smoker's sport'.

Fieldfare near Wareham

Part of a large flock of winter thrushes

A wonder then that I look forward to the Six Nations at all, though in truth I do so not just for the sport but for what it signifies about the time of year: when the championship starts, it's still winter, and by the time it comes to a climax, spring will be underway. Here I am uploading photos of wintering thrushes, and by the time it's over, I fully expect to be posting images of the first migrant Wheatears of the year to hit the Dorset coast.

Fieldfare is often accompanied by...

...Redwing

Back-to-back bouts of man flu have curtailed my outdoor exploits of late, so it was good to curl up in front of the TV yesterday and watch the games, but today I felt well enough to drive to a few local spots which I knew would provide some opportunities to do a bit of birding and photography from the warmth and comfort of the car.

Robin

A look back at the beast

In the excitement of blogging about patch Hawfinches, I almost forgot to recount everything else I saw during the cold snap in the Swineham/Wareham area a couple of weekends ago. In truth, there was nothing spectacular, but plenty of common or scarce species were turning up in unusual locations, some surprisingly easy to see as the harsh conditions forced them into gardens or otherwise into the open in the search for sustenance. The highlights were a Firecrest in my postage stamp of a town centre garden, and an icicle-clad Spoonbill on the main gravel pit at Swineham. Sadly, two of this last species were found dead in recent days in Dorset: one had presumably succumbed to the cold, the other, which had two broken legs, was thought possibly to have snapped them trying to free itself from ice. An illustration of the harsh impacts of the freeze which, judging by the death toll chronicled on social media, befell many individual birds over the course of a few days. And a reminder to put some food out for the garden birds if the coming weekend's forecast of snow materialises.

Adult Spoonbill - I have never seen one with icicles on the breast feathers.

Black-tailed Godwit, one of several hundred on the frozen fields at Bestwall.

A few dozen Curlew were also present.

Fieldfares were in the gardens of Wareham.

Redwings were everywhere, including my town centre garden and this one in the town's churchyard.

Blackbirds were among the other thrushes in the churchyard.

Normally shy Song Thrushes seemed unusually bold in the cold.

Not a great view of a Water Rail - but any view is a good view in the thick reeds at Bestwall. This was one of three of this species out in the open.

This was the only reasonably sharp photograph of the Firecrest in my garden I could manage, snatched through foggy glass with shaking hands!

The first time I have seen ice floes coming up the River Frome!

Swineham Point inundated by a very high tide - Redshanks, Skylarks, Meadow and Rock Pipits were attempting to feed on the ice here.



Within hours of the last snowflake, the onset of spring seemed to resume: temperatures were back up to double figures and this Dunnock was belting out song as if to declare it had survived the harsh conditions.

Finch finding

I mentioned recently that the Hawfinch invasion was in danger of passing me by - I finally caught up with one last weekend on a visit to friends in Kent but had still yet to see one at home in Dorset, so I set out this morning with the aim of doing just that. Several sites seem to be holding Hawfinch since they arrived but Bonsley Wood near Blandford Forum sounded like one of the most reliable so I headed there. I bumped into one of these chunky, short-tailed birds before I got to the main wood, a few more whilst there, and even more on the way back, confirming the impression formed from recent reports that they can be seen just about anywhere in suitable habitat at the moment. Brambling, Redpoll and Bullfinch were also in the wood, an enjoyable couple of hours in a location I hadn't checked out before.

Hawfinch, Bonsley Wood

This head-on view shows the bulk of a Hawfinch bill

Side view of the impressive bill

The best flight shot I could manage - note the curled tips to the primaries can just be seen on the edge of the folded wing

A few Brambling were in with the Chaffinch flock in Bonsley Wood

Grey Wagtail, Bonsley Wood

Bullfinch last weekend at Sissinghurst in Kent

Fieldfare, Sissinghurst, Kent

Fieldfare, Sissinghurst

Mistle Thrush in Yew at Igtham Mote, Kent

Redwing, Sissinghurst

Nuthatch, Sissinghurst

Catching up

I'm a bit behind with posts so here's some old news from last weekend. I hit the heaths in the hope of adding to the photo year list with my main target being Great Grey Shrike. There were two in Dorset to choose from - one at Morden Bog and one at Godlingstone Heath, but I fancied Studland so headed there first. Steve Smith gave me directions which were spot on, and after a bit of a yomp out to the heathland edge I managed a reasonably close approach before a yappy dog put the bird to flight. Jol and I then watched our sons almost certainly blow their chance of the Dorset Youth Football Under-12s League Division 3 championship in a top of the table fixture against Ringwood, so we went and had another look late afternoon to dull the pain. Returning to the same spot the Shrike was distant but fortunately flew in to not far from where we were standing. A harsh sidelight made photography difficult for Joe and I but it was a great view nonetheless.

Great Grey Shrike (#90)

The light improved later in the day on a return visit

Fieldfare (#91)

After that it was time to scrape the barrel, photo wise, with some distant but tickable Fieldfares, some even more distant but still tickable Slavonian Grebes, a badly photographed but tickable Ring-necked Parakeet at Studland, and a trio of untickable Great Bustards from the Salisbury Plain reintroduction scheme which have been knocking around the Dorset coast for several weeks now.

Ring-necked Parakeet - gaudy but tickable (#92)

Slavonian Grebe in the gloom off South Beach, Studland (#93)

Great Bustards

Great Bustard - the first of the released birds I have seen in Dorset or anywhere else for that matter

 

Headbangers

It's taken me years to see Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers in Dorset, testament not just to what a duffer I am but also to how difficult they have become to catch up with. All that changed in Wareham Forest this weekend and while I didn't exactly have them drumming on my lens cap like this one photographed superbly by Brett Spencer yesterday, I was happy to get some record shots of a pair. A Great Spotted was battering its head on the same tree and Green Woodpeckers flying around the same area completed the set.

Male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in flight

Female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Female Great Spotted Woodpecker - compare with previous shot

Woodlark was also present near the Woodpeckers

Brimstones confirmed the arrival of Spring

Grey Squirrel

Fieldfare were shipping out as the warmer weather arrived

And this Great Grey Shrike in Wareham Forest won't be around for long either

Drive-by shooting

Birders often describe non-birders as 'members of the public', particularly when they suspect the member of the public in question doesn't know one end of a bird from the other. So when a Hoopoe was reported by a member of the public in Hamworthy, many assumed that a 'pinkish bird with crest' was a Jay or maybe a Waxwing at best. But after a couple of days of phantom sightings, some diligent cruising of the backstreets by some non-members of the public eventually produced an indisputable report complete with photo.

Suburban twitching throws up some weird street name combinations. The Hoopoe had been in Annet Close, so when I saw Samson Road I thought maybe the theme was the Isles of Scilly...

The next street was Goliath Road, so clearly not an Isles of Scilly theme. Herons perhaps?

Then it dawned on me: of course! The hits of Tom Jones!

 

Hamworthy is a large suburb of Poole, characterised by long circuitous avenues with myriad cul-de-sacs, and about a million lawns kept with varying degrees of fastidiousness. The Hoopoe seemed determined to visit them all, but none for very long, and ranged over a wide area. Other birders had made 5 or 6 visits and put up to 15 hours into seeing this bird without success - kerb-crawling in their own words - so I joined the effort on Saturday afternoon more in hope than expectation. After the best part of 3 hours aimless taxi-ing, I had drawn a blank.

Hoopoe was not the only bird on the lawns of Hamworthy. Redwing were also in the area.

During this time I was getting increasingly quizzical looks from the occupants of a police car whose beat I appeared to be following - we passed each other at least 4 times. Another birder, whose name I've withheld for legal reasons, was actually pulled over by them for suspected Hoopoe-bothering, but a flash of his Collins Guide saw him get off with a caution.



Another lawn, another bird. A Fieldfare this time.

 

Most reports of the Hoopoe had been from one of two main residential areas and, having searched both pretty comprehensively, my last throw of the dice was to try a smaller area between the two where I could not recall the bird being reported previously. It was a good move as I stumbled across it feeding on a front lawn next to the road. I got the news out quickly and despite reinforcements arriving within 10 minutes the bird had flown before anyone else could see it, making mine the only sighting yesterday as far as I am aware. Unless, of course, some 'members of the public' saw it. The car was the perfect hide in this situation, and I took some quick drive-by shots in the fading light. Fortunately the bird was present in the same area today allowing most of the locals to finally catch up with it.
 

The notorious Hamworthy Hoopoe - on the run, giving Dorset's finest the slip.

After no luck with all that Biblical Samson and Delilah Street nonsense, I eventually found the Hoopoe in the reassuringly rational vicinity of Dawkins Road

The bird seemed to be feeding well...

 

...but was present for just 5 minutes before flying off and wasn't seen again before dusk.