January....

Good news readers, I've decided to spare you the usual epic 'review of the year' post in favour of reflecting on 2016 via twelve month-by-month instalments during December. So a bit like a crappy advent calendar without the chocolates. Starting, then, with January which was warmer than usual - something to do with this, no doubt: one of the scariest info-graphics of 2016. Anyway, enough of sobering but educational scientific diversions - this was the year, after all, that the free world decided it'd had enough of experts, facts and truth in general. As well as mild, January was also, as I recall, unremittingly grey, so wildlife photography was a bit of a challenge. A few willing subjects presented themselves though, most memorably:

Black Redstart - this handsome male brightened up a grey day at Chesil Cove. My January 'photo of the month' - and bird of the month

Female Black Redstart also at Chesil Cove

This Great Northern Diver spent the New Year just yards offshore at Baiter Park in Poole

Russian Dark-bellied Brents were on the playing fields at Baiter

Purple Sandpiper on the stone steps at Sandbanks

Marsh Tits were coming to feeders at Corfe Castle in January

Blackbird in a rare front at Swineham

Moores on moors

This year's summer family holiday was spent on Dartmoor - in an idyllic holiday cottage with no phone signal or wifi, a million miles from the heaving metropolis of Wareham. OK it's nearer 80 miles and we have precious little in the way of a phone signal or wifi in Wareham either, but you get my drift.

Spotted Flycatcher, Dartmoor

One of two or three birds present in a short stretch of hedgerow

Always an entertaining bird to watch

Wildlife photography was not a top priority on this trip, taking a poor fifth place to sleeping, dozing, loafing, and pigging out - not things I do readily or easily, and it took me the best part of a week to get the hang of it. Fortunately I have a patient family who taught me well in the ways of relaxation, sloth and gluttony.

Female Redstart in the same hedgerow

A male Redstart - there were three in total

Another male Redstart in conifers near Bellever Tor

When we did hit the great outdoors, riverside walks and scrambling up tors were the order of the day, but a good selection of wildlife was encountered on the way, most memorably along a hedgerow of a high moorland road which seemed to be dripping with migrant birds, even though we weren't really looking for them. Love it when that happens.

Coal Tit, Yarner Woods

Marsh Tit, Yarner Woods

Nuthatch, Yarner Woods

It wasn't really the best time of year to be visiting nearby Yarner Woods, but as we had never been before, we went anyway, and found that well-stocked feeders were attracting a fine selection of woodland birds to entertain the children and their parents alike.


We disturbed this Jersey Tiger moth from roadside vegetation

It took a shine to Geroge's shirt

A view of the colourful underside

Claire now works in the tourist trade so we were almost professionally obliged to review all sorts of attractions on our travels from that perspective, rather than just visit them like normal punters. The verdict on highly touted Becky Falls wasn't kind: a bit over-priced and over-sold, I felt, with an inexplicably random selection of petting zoo creatures littered around the place.


The Golden-ringed Dragonfly was on the wing in Dartmoor - an impressive green-eyed monster

Male Wheatear near Haytor

Photographed from the car window

If you must shell out your hard-earned dollars visiting a waterfall, better value can be obtained, IMHO, at Canonteign Falls - a man made folly of a cascade, but still impressive, with classier catering and a slightly less random, though still inexplicable, selection of petting zoo creatures.

Beautiful Demoiselle at Dartmeet, Dartmoor

Female Goosander on the river at Dartmeet

This is one of three offspring in a family party - note the stripy face compared to mum above

Better still, save your money and go to the ethereal Devon Wildlife Trust reserve at Dartmeet instead: more tranquil, beautiful and blessed with an entirely appropriate and not remotely random selection of creatures including Dippers, Goosanders, Silver-washed Fritillaries and Beautiful Demoiselles. All looking much more at home than the giant rabbits and miniature ponies at the pay-per-view waterfall freak-shows. For the price of a family ticket to the other two watery attractions, you could get yourself membership of your local Wildlife Trust for a year. And a much warmer feeling in your stomach.

This bat - Pipistrelle, we think - took up temporary residence in the bedroom of our holiday cottage

Spotted Flycather

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker, Yarner Woods

The verdict on southern Dartmoor overall then: a great destination which met our needs perfectly - not too busy, not too far to travel, rich in wildlife, plenty to do, all set in a stunning landscape. Also, if you are in the area, superb food and ale at the Cridmoor Inn in Trusham, dating back to 852AD.

George at Dartmeet

The whole gang on the clapper bridge at Postbridge

The Moores on the moors at Bellever

Time with the extended family

There are five species of 'true' tit on the Dorset list - Willow is sadly now lost to the County as a breeding bird, leaving Blue, Great, Coal and Marsh as the most likely to be seen these days. (Long-tailed, Bearded and Penduline Tit are all from closely related families, but are not considered 'true' tits). After Willow, Marsh Tit is the least likely of the 'true' tits to be encountered, but there are a few sites in Purbeck where they may come to feeders in winter, including Arne and, this winter, Corfe Castle. I popped along there yesterday, in the half-hour of daylight which remained after watching table-topping Wareham Rangers U-13s drop three points at home to the Parkstone Falcons. A result, since you ask, which leaves them just three points ahead of second-placed Swanage, who they play in their next fixture - making it a real six-pointer of a Purbeck derby. The light was going as I arrived, and had I known the boys were going to get mugged in a last minute counter-attack I might have invested the 60 minutes I spent before that, watching them spurn a hatful of chances, getting better photos of Marsh Tit!

Marsh Tit, Corfe Castle

The much commoner Blue Tit at Corfe Castle

This Coal Tit was seen earlier in the day at Bestwall

Great Tit among the pines at Swineham earlier in the day

Long-tailed Tit, from the family Aegithalidae, at Swineham

Ton up!

I'm not sure what the run-rate for a 'good' photo year-list should be by the end of February, but I suspect 100 is well below it. Anyway, that's what I have reached and the honour of being the 100th species captured on film digital recording media falls to the Bohemian Waxwing. Naturally, I had to manipulate the order in which I notched up the ticks on my recent trip to East Anglia to bring up the hundred on such a glamorous species, but, let's be honest, it just wouldn't have been the same if it was a Skylark. We spent Friday night on the way back from Norfolk to Dorset in a budget motel at Barton Mills in Suffolk - conveniently close to Mildenhall where the Waxwing had spent much of the previous week. I was able to twitch it whilst the rest of the family were still doing their morning ablutions.

The Waxwing, a first winter bird, was feeding in prime Waxwing habitat - a modern suburban housing estate

That pesky twig spoilt an otherwise perfectly good photo - one step to the left or right and the bird would have been obscured by the vegetation in front of me (I was using a bush for cover) so there was no way around it. And Photoshop would be cheating.

As a first winter bird, the characteristic waxy red tips to the wing feathers, caused by the shafts extending beyond the barbs, could not be seen in the closed wing, but can just about be seen coming through here in the raised wing

So with that landmark chalked up, I am starting to wonder what I might get to by the year's end, whilst not being sufficiently committed or confident as yet to set a proper target. There is still significant potential for work and family commitments to scupper the whole project and leave me wishing/pretending I had never started it. For now, though, it is time to savour the milestone and admire the beauty of Bombycilla garrulous.

To rack up a really good score would require some of our more elusive and secretive species to perform for the camera. So having mobilised the rest of the family after twitching the Waxwing, I persuaded them that a trip to nearby Lynford Arboretum would be fun, more in hope than expectation that I might catch up with one of the Hawfinches that are seen there from time to time. Fortunately one had been staked out near a feeding station and was showing on and off to a small crowd of admirers. The photos were poor in view of the distance and low light but good enough to pass the 'identifiable' test.

I haven't seen Hawfinch (#108) for a few years so it was good to see one on the ground

This bird fed actively in the leaf litter

Check out that conk!

With two of the most desirable species on the British list in the bag there was time for a more leisurely stroll around the arboretum. A Brambling at the feeding station was a bonus and I was able to improve on the photos of Marsh Tit taken in the garden of our holiday cottage on the Suffolk coast earlier in the week.

Brambling (#109), Lynford Arboretum, Norfolk

Marsh Tit, Lynford Arboretum, Norfolk

Marsh Tit, Lynford Arboretum. Norfolk

Copper-headed Pre-teen, Lesser Blonde Chatterbox and Owl-headed Matriarch were three species I was not expecting to see at Lynford

So, not bad for what was supposed to be a travelling day, three potentially tricky species added to the year list and some quality time with the family (who spent the rest of the journey being totally uncommunicative and playing with handheld electronic devices). Oh go on then, one more of that twig.

Note how it is in perfect focus. The twig, I mean.

Different garden birds

Just back from a few days with the family in Suffolk where our cottage in Eastbridge had views over the marshes and a Barn Owl nest box on the lawn. Jackdaws were squatting in the nest box but the Barn Owl could still be seen roosting in a dead tree just beyond the end of the garden. I went out early one morning and came back to find the boys telling tales about seeing Marsh Harriers from the kitchen. I was just expressing my disbelief when George caused me to spit out my cornflakes by pointing one out just beyond the garden fence. I fumbled for the camera and managed a few shots before it sailed behind some trees. Marsh Tits visited the feeders while Cetti's Warbler, Snipe and Tawny Owl made it on to the 'heard only' list. Makes my small urban garden in Wareham, currently massively over-grazed by Guinea Pigs, look a bit lame.


Male Marsh Harrier, Eastbridge

Not a bad garden bird

Barn Owl, Eastbridge - #95 on my photo year list

The photos should have been better but I screwed up my settings at the crucial moment

Marsh Tit (#96) visited feeders in the garden with its commoner cousins

The birdseed also attracted larger visitors like this Pheasant (#97)