April...

I'm not sure I am going to get through this review of the year at this rate, so expect increasingly frequent and more badly drafted posts from this point on as I seek to catch up. The highlight of April 2016 for me was a family holiday in Scotland, in a divine cottage on the shores of Loch Creran. Divers, Tysties and Eiders from the garden made for a special location, and a bit of Scottish nightlife was on show too thanks to the moth trap. Despite some typically dreich weather, the birdlife in Oban Harbour provided plenty to photograph:

Black Guillemot, Oban Harbour: my photo, and bird, of the month for April

Iceland Gull, Oban Harbour

Hooded Crow, Oban Harbour

On returning from Scotland, spring migration was in full flow in Dorset - I was able to photograph an approachable Hoopoe, a more elusive Bluethroat and a positively coy Western Subalpine Warbler on the same memorable day on Portland:

Hoopoe, Portland

Western Subalpine Warbler, Portland

White-spotted Bluethroat, Portland

Closer to home spring also produced some good birds around Purbeck: Nightingales returning to their traditional breeding site on the Corfe Ridge, Hobbies hawking over Stoborough Heath and, one of the patch highlights of the year, a strikingly summer-plumaged Bar-tailed Godwit at Swineham.

Nightingale

Hobby, Stoborough Heath

Bar-tailed Godwit, Swineham

 

And still they come...

As April turns into May, more migrant birds are returning from their wintering grounds. I caught up with some special ones over the long weekend, taking in a couple of sites on the southern shore of Poole Harbour, and sneaking in an early morning trip to Portland between some weekend work commitments - so not much time for text!

Hobby over Stoborough Heath - our only falcon to spend winter south of the Sahara. This one was engaged in a fruitless search for odonata on a bright but chilly day

A Nightingale returning to a traditional site on the Corfe Ridge - easily heard before it was seen. Geolocators are providing more accurate accounts of the migration route to Africa taken by the UK's Nightingales - see here

This Cuckoo was seen before it was heard on Stoborough Heath - a combination of satellite tracking and Springwatch has made minor celebrities out of several of these long distance migrants - see here

A male Kentish Plover at Ferrybridge was a bonus on returning from a relatively birdless Portland - sadly, no longer a breeding bird in the UK. Western European breeders winter in South West Europe

A continental White Wagtail at Portland Bill was the highlight of a twirl around the south of the island

Back at home, a 1st summer Little Gull brightened up a visit to Swineham on a dull Bank Holiday Monday

The first Swifts of the year had also arrived and were screaming over the gravel pits. This species wins the prize for the most epic migration featured in this post - see BTO website for details here. One bird fitted with a geolocator completed the final 5,000km leg of the journey back to the UK from West Africa in 5 days. Swift indeed.

 

Quality time on the bog

I managed a hat-trick of visits to Morden Bog this weekend - the first, on Saturday, was a bit of a flyer, as I was just passing and didn't have long. I did a circuit of the Old Decoy Pond and heard just a single Tree Pipit singing - doing the same again the following day at more leisure produced a more respectable eleven singing males. The highlight of Saturday's visit, however, was a Hobby hawking dragonflies over the pond.

Back again early on Sunday morning a vocal but elusive Cuckoo finally gave itself up for a photo. Other heathland specialities were also in evidence - scratchy Dartfords and musical Woodlarks - while a Green Hairstreak was my first of the year. But for the apparent inability of numerous dog walkers to observe the polite signs asking them to keep their dogs under control, it was a pretty perfect place to spend some time.

Cuckoo, Morden Bog (#179)

Tree Pipit (#180)

Meadow Pipit with a Common Heath moth

A male Redstart was singing from a lofty perch

It was the last day of this month in 2014 when the famous Short-toed Eagle was found, shortly before its tour of southern heathlands took it to the New Forest and Ashdown Forest. So I found myself looking up in anticipation every time a crow went up to mob a raptor, but it was never for anything rarer than a Buzzard.

Male Stonechat

Stonechats look like they might have a good breeding year

Another young Stonechat

Green Hairstreak

And a late entry for the photo year list - a backlit Spotted Flycatcher on Portland last weekend (#181)

Meare Heath extras

As well as yesterday's star bird, the Hudsonian Godwit, Meare Heath also produced a few more good species - all seen from the same spot whilst watching the Hudwit.

Hudsonian Godwit

Hudsonian Godwit - 156th species photographed in Britain this year

Bittern

Common Cranes - presumably from the local reintroduction scheme, so 'untickable' for the photo list

This one's OK though: Great White Egret, one of two seen (#157)

First Hobby of the year (#158)

Little Ringed Plover (#159)

Wood Sandpiper (#160)

Long hot summer

Just realised that 8 of my last 10 posts were about Northumberland - so just to clarify, I haven't moved, and I still spent most of the summer in my adopted home of Dorset. The up country trips were holidays/escapism, while back at home, a change of job, and the usual conveyor belt of visitors who tend to roll up when you live in such a wonderful county, have seriously cramped the time and energy I have available for birding lately.

So on the down side, from my point of view, I get less time to immerse myself in this medium, which I now realise has been a good outlet for some creative energy which probably wasn't being used to the full. On the up side, from your point of view, this has put an end to the long, rambling posts beloved of this blog. No more real time reports of 14 hour twitches either - there just isn't the time to go, let alone write them up.

So, in lieu of all that stuff, here's a straight-forward wash up of some local stuff that I saw and did over the summer. Some of it, even if old news now, was pretty cool.

Exciting and frustrating at the same time was the discovery of a small colony of 2nd generation Map butterflies near Swanage by my good friend Steve Smith - their origins unknown.

Expert opinion has leant towards a deliberate release being more likely than a natural colonisation - if so, the misguided individuals who illegally release captive bred, non-native butterflies into the wild, rather than helping biodiversity, are in fact obscuring the reality of what's happening in the countryside.

The underside, dissected by trunk and branch lines, does indeed look like a 'Map'

This Hummingbird Hawkmoth spent a couple of days in my kitchen in mid-August. Attracted by lavender in the garden, it secreted itself behind curtains at night.

A Wasp Spider - a large female - was the highlight of a rare visit to Swineham

This Hobby caused panic among large flocks of hirundines at Swineham

A roosting Southern Hawker was also at Swineham

The privations of island life

I've written before about how one of the more miserable aspects of life in Dorset is the thankless chore of visiting Brownsea Island at least once a year. After the endless, gut-churning 5 minute boat ride, comes the relentless slog across at least 100 yards of boardwalk to the nature reserve where you are forced to sit and wait in annoyingly well-appointed hides for literally seconds before seeing waders and breeding terns at point blank range. Honestly, I don't know why I bother, I should just go seawatching at Branksome or something for some proper close-up action. As if all the quality birds on the lagoon weren't enough, during this weekend's visit with the family an impudent Hobby almost took my head off in a low stoop after a dragonfly. The cheek! And as for those squirrels, well don't get me started...

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwits

Common Tern in front of the houses on Brownsea Quay

Common Tern

Drake Gadwall on the lagoon

Hobby

Did a couple of passes and then it was gone

Stunning birds

Red Squirrel near the Church

Red Squirrel

Sandwich Tern

The colony is doing well thanks to netting erected to keep out Sika Deer

Yellow-legged Gull with chick

Common Heath

Shelduck