Late postcards

Been su-per busy lately, so much so that this cob-webbed corner of the internet has been even more neglected than usual, and I haven't even finished with the highlights of our Easter holiday in France. This will probably be the last late postcard from Brittany, so I will finish where I began, pondering the mysteries of how mega-fussy, range restricted, habitat-specialist species in Britain can be as common as caca on the near continent. First up, the Crested Tit: if you want to see this in Britain and you're not in pristine Caledonian Pine Forest, forget it; in France, by contrast, pick a park, any park...

Crested Tit, Site des mégalithes de Locmariaquer, Brittany

A pair were being very vocal around the stunning ancient monuments at Locmariaquer

A very perky individual

Serin has often been predicted as a future British coloniser but, apart from some sporadic breeding attempts, it hasn't really happened yet. The one pictured below was just outside our caravan. Pictured below that, the Short-toed Treecreeper breeds in France and the Channel Islands but is only recorded as a rare vagrant in Britain. It was good to have the opportunity to study the subtle differences in plumage and song compared to our Common Treecreeper.

Just to clarify, this Serin does not have a Bishop's hat as part of the plumage, it's a bud on the tree.

Short-toed Treecreeper

Short-toed Treecreeper

Next up is the Firecrest - common enough on these shores but ridiculously so in Brittany, there seemed to be one singing in every suitable patch of habitat, and a few in unsuitable ones. Great to see so many so well, with a lot of crest-raising action to observe in the process as they staked out territories.

Firecrest

Firecrest

Firecrest

So an enjoyable trip with a bit of variety, natural and human history, some familiar and some less familiar wildlife, a few half-decent opportunities to get out with the camera, and quality time with the family. All a good holiday should be.

The famous Carnac Stones - one of the many archaeological treasures of Brittany

Stonechat doing what it says on the tin among the Carnac stones

Stonechat at Suscinio

I call this one 'Stonechateau' - Stonechat in front of the fairy tale castle as Suscinio

Male Linnet

My patient sons at Carnac Plage

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.

Spoilt for choice?

The choices facing intrepid twitchers as the third weekend of October approaches have perhaps been more enticing: a dead Black and White Warbler in Merseyside, a nearly dead Yellow-billed Cuckoo on Scilly, or the ghostly apparition of a possible Lanceolated Warbler in North Norfolk being the headliners as the sun set tonight. As well as autumn migration, the Purbeck Film Festival is now in full flow, and with my wife up to her neck in organising it, and my bargaining position at an all time low after a recent trip to Shetland, leaving home is not really an option anyway, so I may just have a duvet day as Hurricane Brian approaches and reflect on the rare bird event of the week which took place just a few miles from home in Dorset.

At least three Firecrest were in the quarry near St Aldhelm's Head - this one was photographed on Portland on Sunday

I wrote last month about how three new birds seemed certain to be added to the Dorset list when the 2017 record books come to be written - that number has now risen to five. Following September's Least Sandpiper, the crème-de-la-crème of a scrumptious crop of American waders to turn up along the Jurassic Coast over the past few weeks, the latest addition was even rarer - a Two-barred Greenish Warbler near St Aldhelm's Head.

Firecrest

The bird had first been reported as a probable Arctic Warbler on Sunday evening - that would have been an excellent bird in Dorset (only the third record), but some uncertainty around the identification prompted Dorset Bird Club guvnor Marcus Lawson to urge any local birder with time on their hands to check it out. Fortunately, one of the sharpest, Brett Spencer, did so on Tuesday, and re-identified it as a Two-barred Greenish - the first record for Dorset, and only the fifth for Britain.

Firecrest - 68 were ringed at Portland Bill on Sunday, including this one

All very well then, but would I get to see it? It was cutting it very fine for me to get to St Aldhelm's after work and before dark - but I managed it thanks to some speed walking, a tense train journey and slinging my bike in the boot to save time between parking the car at Renscombe Farm and getting to the quarry where the bird was to be found.

Pale underparts helped pick out the Two-barred Greenish Warbler

The combination of heavy rain and a hyper-active bird made getting conclusive views difficult at first, but eventually it showed reasonably well and, in view of the conditions, I was delighted to get any kind of photograph. After August's Yellow Warbler from the Americas, this beast from the far east will hopefully not be the last surprise my adopted county has in store for 2017.

A thick wingbar on the greater coverts and a shorter, narrower wingbar on the median coverts can just about be seen here

March...

This month-by-month review of 2016 lark is proving harder than I thought. Not just remembering what happened - that's difficult enough as I hurtle through the foothills of middle age - but summoning up the creativity to write something interesting about it. Fortunately, March was almost wholly uneventful, thus sparing me the bother. Little was achieved in the way of photography, the highlights being:

Treecreeper, Blandford Forum: my photo of the month - against not very stiff competition, it has to be said

Black-necked Grebe, Studland

Firecrest, Kingston Lacy

Great Grey Shrike, Wareham Forest - a late winter visitor

Northern Wheatear, Portland - a harbinger of spring

A stuttering start to Spring

I said in my last post that I refused to believe it was spring until I had seen my first Wheatear, Sand Martin and Brimstone of the year - well now I've seen all three, and photographed two (the Brimstone was seen from a moving car, photographing it would probably have been frowned upon by my passengers and fellow users of the A351 as I was driving). The Wheatears were trickling in to Portland last weekend, while the Sand Martins were at Lodmoor. More are arriving all the time, and while Good Friday's fine weather provided the opportunity to get out and about to look for them, Storm Katie has put a halt to the fun for now.

Northern Wheatear, Portland Bill

Small parties were arriving on Portland last weekend

This pristine individual showed a neat black pencil line between the mask and the wing panel

They weren't hanging about though - all hurrying north

Showing the black 'T' on the tail here

As well as one of the earliest and longest-travelled spring migrants, this is also one of the smartest

Meadow Pipits were also giving song flights on Portland

Sand Martin at Lodmoor - another early spring migrant

Sand Martin - like the Wheatear, a sub-Saharan migrant

A ringed male Stonechat on Portland

Stonechat

Good Friday saw us at Kingston Lacy, where I thought the sunshine and flowers might produce the first butterfly photos of the year - unfortunately not, but a Firecrest was a bonus

Firecrest singing its heart out at times

At least two birds were present, this the most vocal

Earlier in the day a morning walk around Morden Bog produced an unexpected Great Grey Shrike

Possibly the same bird I saw earlier in the winter at Sugar Hill?