Mallorca day 12: one last visit to the swamp

Our penultimate full day on Mallorca had been ear-marked for a day at the Hidropark Alcudia, a hideous dystopia of water slides, junk food and verrucas which apparently counts as a fun day out for my fellow family members. Typically, it was the coolest day of the holiday and a stiff breeze was blowing in from the sea, making us shiver as we queued up for various forms of chlorine-fuelled entertainment. After a wholesome lunch of gristle, fat and chips, the strain was beginning to show, and I was granted time off for good behaviour to go and have another look at nearby S'Albufera marsh.

Kentish Plover

Kentish Plover

Kentish Plover - juvenile

Black-winged Stilt - juvenile

I checked out a different route on this occasion, heading north from the stone bridges near the visitor centre following the Itinerari des Colombars. The walk was long and straight and the heat was rising, but I knew there were pools at the end which might be worth checking out so I persevered. I had been surprised by the lack of Kentish Plovers on my earlier visits, but Colombars seemed to be where they were all hiding: as I headed left off the main track on to a boardwalk to the hide, an unseen Kentish Plover peeped and flushed almost from under the boardwalk itself. From the hide an adult and youngster strutted at close range, with Stilts, Glossy Ibises and Marbled Ducks in the background.

Black-winged Stilt

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Black-winged Stilt

Well that went quickly

And so 2018 has drawn to an end. A transition year for me professionally, and the focus of my energies on this perhaps inevitably led to less time out with the camera over the course of the last twelve months. Which is not to say I didn't get out - on the contrary, communing with nature and Canon continued to be an essential distraction from the trials of 'real' life. Blogging, by contrast, definitely took a back seat - just 28 posts in 2018 compared to 68 in 2017 and 165 in 2012, which was apparently the peak of my powers in terms of textual diarrhoea. A few highlights from the first 6 months of the year below.

January
My review of the year starts, with unswerving commitment to neat chronology, in January, when the Hawfinch invasion of late 2017 continued to dominate the birding scene. Rural Dorset churchyards continued to receive many optic-bearing visitors not normally seen on hallowed ground as these chunky finches congregated wherever there were Yews. A couple of trips to Stanpit hoping to improve on my average pictures of the long-staying Stilt Sandpiper, which had relocated there from Lodmoor via Brownsea, proved unsuccessful towards the end of January though I did at least see it.

Bird of the month for January: Horned Lark, Staines Reservoir

My first and only 'out of County' trip of the month was to the exotic environs of Staines, where an American Horned Lark spent several weeks around the causeway of the vast west London reservoir. Shore Lark is one of my favourite species and Staines is closer than any of their regular wintering sites so the chance of seeing this exceptionally rare form reasonably close to home was not to be missed. The undoubted wildlife watching highlight of the month was, however, a chance encounter with a Humpback Whale in Chesil Cove in my adopted county of Dorset. A brief sighting of a distant individual allowed only for a poor record shot - but an incredible record nonetheless.

Wildlife highlight of the month: Humpback Whale in Chesil Cove

February
February was a month for gull connoisseurs, with a dozen species available for viewing in the Dorset/Hampshire area. The rarest of the lot, a putative Thayer's, currently regarded as a sub-species of Iceland Gull, was enjoyed on a short-range twitch to Blashford Lakes with my good friend Steve Smith, taking a break from his punishing schedule of globe-trotting wildlife junkets to slum it on the south coast with the rest of us. A Ring-billed Gull kept company with the Thayer's Gull in the same late afternoon roost.

Thayer's Gull, Blashford Lakes. What do you mean, underwhelmed?

With no disrespect to the Thayer's Gull (a rather drab juvenile), it was eclipsed for beauty if not rarity by one of the most sought after species from its family later in the month with the arrival of an exquisite adult Ross's Gull in Weymouth. This bird first arrived at Lodmoor where it proved difficult to catch up with but by the weekend it had relocated to Radipole Lake where Jol Mitchell and I, plus our respective sons, were delighted to catch up with it.

Ross's Gull, Radipole: my first Dorset tick of 2018 and bird of the month for February

March
March was a month of contrasts with icy 'beasts from the East' sandwiching the first signs of spring in the middle of the month. The cold snaps brought a Firecrest to my tiny urban garden, and a pair of hungry and unusually confiding Hawfinches down to feed in the graveyard of my local church in Wareham for a sought after patch tick.

Hawfinch, Wareham

A short Scottish trip at the end of the month saw me add the first new bird of 2018 to my British list in the form of an American White-winged Scoter off Musselburgh near Edinburgh. This striking seaduck was in good company bobbing along with Velvet Scoter, Surf Scoter, Red-throated Diver and Slovanian Grebe for company. Difficult to beat watching seaducks in winter on a wild Scottish estuary.

American White-winged Scoter (left-hand bird), Musselburgh: March's bird of the month

April
Easter saw us hopping on to a ferry in Portsmouth for a week's family holiday in Brittany. The beach and marshes at Suscinio turned out to be the top birding spot of the trip with Fan-tailed Warbler, Bluethroat, Black-winged Stilt and Kentish Plover all within a short walk form the car park. Serin, Firecrest, Cirl Bunting, Short-toed Treecreeper and Crested Tit exemplified the theme of the week: apparently common species in Brittany which are all rare or range restricted birds at home.

Camberwell Beauty, Le Parc naturel regional de Briere

A visit to the extensive wetlands of Le Parc naturel regional de Briere produced one of the highlights of the holiday - a close encounter with a couple of Camberwell Beauty butterflies basking in the spring sunshine. Marsh Harriers, Savi's Warblers, White Storks and Blue-headed Wagtails provided a colourful supporting cast.

Male Kentish Plover, Suscinio

Back in Dorset a Bonaparte's Gull returned to Longham Lakes continuing a good run of records of this American rarity. During the course of its stay I visited a few times to see the mottled feathers on the head moult into a fully dark hood within the space of a week.

Bonaparte's Gull, Longham Lakes: April's bird of month

May

Cuckoos are easy enough to hear in the spring but seeing one really well is another matter as they can be very shy. So when other commitments took me past Thursley Common early in the month I took the opportunity to pay homage to an exception to this rule - an unusually bold returning male which has become a photographer's favourite in recent summers. Concerns have been expressed about whether the mealworm diet supplements laid on for it have been doing it any good - but it hasn't stopped it getting to and from Africa over the last couple of years so I guess it can't be causing too much harm! 

Cuckoo, Thursley Common

May also saw me returning to Cerne Abbas, one of Dorset's best butterfly sites, where the Duke of Burgundy can be seen on the wing. This species is recovering well nationally thanks in large part to the efforts of staff and volunteers working on behalf of my new employer, Butterfly Conservation. A special mention to one of them, Patrick Cook, who I bumped into that warm spring day at Cerne Abbas, for over-taking me on his bike so often when I started cycling the 7 miles to work this summer. The daily humiliation spurred me on to stick with it and I'm a lot fitter as a result - cheers Patrick!

Duke of Burgundy with Dingy Skipper, Cerne Abbas

Due to my fondness for sanitation, when the family went camping toward the end of the month I was banished from their company and treated myself to a few days on the east coast. There, among other delights, I enjoyed the sight of lekking Ruffs at Frampton Marsh and breeding Swallowtails in the Norfolk Broads.

Swallowtail, Strumpshaw Fen

Back home in Dorset, a smart Rose-coloured Starling at Portland Bill was part of a remarkable invasion of this species across the country. This pink poser looked quite at home among the cliff-top thrift of the same colour and gave some close views when Rowan and I paid it a visit.

Rose-coloured Starling, Portland Bill: bird of the month for May

June

June began with some lepidopteran highlights: an Eyed Hawkmoth was a first for the garden moth trap, and a professional visit to Northern Ireland provided an opportunity to see my last UK butterfly species - the Cryptic Wood White - at Craigavon Lakes.

Cryptic Wood White, Craigavon Lakes: my wildlife watching highlight for June

Continuing the insect theme, I made the effort this summer to see some of the Odonata species which I had yet to see in Britain. Most spectacular among these was the Clubtail Dragonlfy. I spent a blissful morning photographing these on a slow-flowing Sussex river, then foolishly allowed myself to be talked into twitching a Moltoni's Subalpine Warbler at Blakeney Point in the afternoon with Steve Smith and Paul Welling. While I saw the Warbler's undertail coverts vanish into deep cover it was an untickable view, and the trudge back along several miles of shingle in the dark, with a limping James Lowen in tow, was, well, let's just say memorable! I should be grateful though that this was my only significant dip of 2018.

American Royal Tern, Church Norton: my second new British bird of 2018 and bird of the month for June

As is traditional, mid-June produced an inconveniently timed mega-rare bird in the form of an American Royal Tern at Church Norton. Train, bike and car were all involved in a late evening dash from Dorchester to see it just as the sun went down!

On the beaches of Brittany

By the mid-point of our recent family holiday to Brittany my attempts at wildlife photography had been confounded by the weather. Not only did the low light present a challenge, but the cool conditions had been holding back the spring migration of birds and the early emergence of butterflies which I had hoped would be well underway by mid-April. So when the sun put his hat on for a few hours we were tempted to head down to the beach at Suscinio, at the eastern end of the Golf du Morbihan.

Male Kentish Plover, Suscinio

The male's plumage matched the colours of the beach pebbles superbly

 A very attractive wader

I had walked a good 20 minutes from the car looking for the Bluethroats which breed there when the rain came down, catching me without a raincoat. It was probably the nadir of the trip and I shuffled back along the beach having seen no Bluethroats cursing my luck. I trudged past some small areas at the back of the beach which had been cordoned off for breeding Kentish Plovers, thinking how woefully inadequate they looked on a beach which appeared popular with dog-walkers and sun-worshippers.

A front view of the male's head pattern

The female Kentish Plover lacks the male's striking head pattern...

...making for excellent camouflage in the context of the beach as this wide-angle view shows

Then a peep just ahead of me alerted me to the presence of a pair of Kentish Plover - one of the birds I had most hoped to see on the beaches of Brittany. I had to walk past them to get back to the car so headed down to the water's edge to avoid any potential nest site and made my way carefully past. The pair posed beautifully for a few photographs as I skirted their adopted patch of beach.

White-spotted Bluethroat, Suscinio

A distinctive song from a distinctive bird

Now that's just showing off

The close encounter with the Plovers had put sufficient spring in my step to have another look for a Bluethroat - this time I was more successful, as a male belted out his song across the marsh behind the beach from a prominent perch. The rain had stopped by now and other birds decided to show themselves - first a Fan-tailed Warbler, the archetypal little brown job, and then a Black-winged Stilt, a proper newspaper of a bird with its red, black and white plumage.

A typical view of the skulky Fan-tailed Warbler, though one would occasionally burst into the air in song flight...

...and a couple of times sat out in the open

Fan-tailed Warbler

The weather and my mood had improved substantially by this point so I returned to my ever-patient family. As we left we were serenaded by a deafening frog chorus, but couldn't see a single one of the choristers! I can highly recommend Suscinio if your are in the area - a fairy tale Chateau provides a stunning backdrop to the wildlife-rich marshland behind the sweeping bay, and if you are short of time and energy, you don't have to go far from the car park to enjoy it all.

Black-winged Stilt, Suscinio

A presumed male, judging by the extent of black on the head...

...and a presumed female flying over the car park

May...

Donald Trump said yesterday that he thinks the USA needs to tool up with more nukes. Well, greetings of the season of peace and goodwill to you too, Mr President-elect. With 2016 being seriously discussed among historians as a candidate for 'the worst year ever', the ominous tweet seemed almost designed to underline how little there is to look forward to in 2017 for those on the lunatic fringe who think nuclear holocaust a very bad idea. A good excuse to look back, then, to a time before democracy proved it's not all it's cracked up to be - to spring, and to May in particular, whose turn it is in my review of the year, as migrant birds arrived in their millions to distract us from the grim realities of existence.

The first half of the month was enlivened by some rare and scarce visitors to my adopted home county of Dorset - Kentish Plover, Black-winged Stilt and Red-rumped Swallow were all good birds, but top billing went a to dashing female Red-footed Falcon at nearby Morden Bog and a Great Spotted Cuckoo on Portland - a Dorset tick for me and many others. It gorged on Brown-tail moth caterpillars, which can be found in huge numbers at Reap Lane, for several weeks.

Red-footed Falcon, Morden Bog: my photo of the month for May

Great Spotted Cuckoo, Portland

Red-rumped Swallow, Lodmoor

Kentish Plover, Ferrybridge

Lepidoptera loomed quite large in my life in 2016: as well as being the first spring in which I had the opportunity to put my new lens through its paces photographing these smaller subjects, I steered an Action Plan for Pollinators through to adoption at Dorset County Council - a small but important attempt to boost the prospects of our declining butterflies, moths and other pollinating insects. Later in the year, some wildflower verges we had created as part of this got a hugely positive reaction from the public - the first time in my twelve year career in local government when the compliments in my inbox have outstripped the complaints! But back to May, which saw the emergence of many sought after species around Dorset's butterfly hotspots:

Duke of Burgundy, Cerne Abbas

Green Hairstreak, Cerne Abbas

Small Blue, Portland

Chequered Skipper - a rarity in Britain restricted to a few sites in north west Scotland - we visited one at Allt Mhuic on the way south from a trip to the Outer Hebs

May ended with one of my most epic and enjoyable adventures of 2016 - a three day trip to the Outer Hebrides with David Bradnum and Paul Welling. We made this mammoth journey to pay homage to the unprecedented spring occurrence of a Black-billed Cuckoo from the Americas and, having done so, to appreciate the dramatic landscapes, the breeding waders and other wildlife of North Uist, South Uist and Benbecula:

Black-billed Cuckoo, North Uist: bird of the month for May

Corncrake, North Uist

Redshank, Outer Hebrides

Female Red-necked Phalarope, Outer Hebrides

One of the highlights of the year and the furthest I travelled in 2016. Fortunately it came at the start of a week off providing for a leisurely stay to appreciate the breeding birds on the Hebrides as well as the vagrant Cuckoo - I would have had neither the energy nor the inclination to just 'smash and grab' the rarity in such a memorable location. And no, Mr Trump, it would not be a good place for a golf course...