Bad camping karma

Long-term readers of this blog may recall how, as nature abhors a vacuum, so I abhor camping. Whitsun Bank Holiday is a favoured time for the family to spend a few nights under canvas - an activity which, I feel obliged to point out, most of the rest of the world only subjects itself to in the event of natural disasters. My folks don't even bother asking me to go with them now, as by the time biting insects and sleep deprivation have taken their toll, I make the whole experience such a misery, apparently. This is a situation which I think we have all come to realise is best for everyone.

Red-baked Shrike, Portland, 30 May

This bank holiday weekend I at least turned up on the first evening to cook the Saturday barbecue before retiring to a comfortable bed with its complete absence of midges and very limited prospects of deflating in the middle of the night. And with the rest of the crew away, I was free to go birding early on Sunday morning. This time last year I found a Temminck's Stint and a Marsh Warbler at Swineham, so I headed straight there hoping for something of equivalent rarity value. Whilst at the apex of a large meander in the River Frome - about as far away from home as it's possible to be at Swineham - news broke of a Red-backed Shrike on Portland.

I hadn't envisaged a long bike ride as I was saving myself for a planned trip to Lyme Regis, and as by the time I got home I would have walked about 5 miles already. But Red-backed Shrike is a species which might well not turn up within reach during the rest of the year so I quickened my pace with a view to getting home, packing the bike and going for it. A helpful tweet from Portland Bird Obs suggested that the Shrike was looking settled which stiffened my resolve as I set off on the long road to Portland. 

It was Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend so traffic was fairly busy, and I took advantage of a few more available stretches of footpath than on other recent trips to Weymouth. It is an iron law of twitching Portland that passing trains will enforce a long wait at the level crossing in Wool, and it appears that this law applies to cycle twitches every bit as much as the car-based version. Compared to my last journey in this direction (for a Bonaparte's Gull at Lodmoor) though the conditions were pretty good, with just a light headwind which was at its strongest as I made my way along the causeway from Ferrybridge.

As I reached Culverwell, Julian Thomas was just leaving and kindly pointed out the Shrike so I could tick it from the road - the pressure was off. Then a quick yomp up the hill for a better view and some photos which were obtained shortly before some horse riders flushed the bird, after which it seemed to get a bit restless. It went missing for the next four hours, so I had arrived just in time. A chat with Garry Hayman and Roly Pitts about what else might be around for the year list concluded that a quick seawatch would be in order before the return journey, but an Arctic Skua, a few Manxies, Kittiwake and a possible Little Gull with a distant feeding frenzy of Gulls were the best we could manage. 

After this little sit-down, I knew I needed to conserve as much energy as possible for Lyme Regis, so I headed straight home rather than checking out other parts of the island as thoroughly as I would have liked. As I passed Lodmoor, the phone rang and it was my wife asking if I had the house keys. I replied that I had my house keys and, in response to further questioning, explained that, no, I couldn't just get the train home to let them in. It turned out they had left a couple of sets of keys at the campsite and returned home expecting to find me there - a very unsafe assumption given my recent habit of spending pretty much every spare waking hour out and about on the bike. 

Suggesting that the other three members of the family, with their cumulative 82 years of life experience, should be able to remember to carry at least one set of keys between them did not go down well and the exchange was terminated with a metaphorical slamming down of the phone at the other end. To be fair, the inability to find anything is one of the many things I hate about camping, but while I empathised with their predicament, I didn't feel I could take responsibility for everyone else's forgetfulness in this instance. Karma clearly disagreed, however, and within a minute of the call ending, a loud pop announced the rapid deflation of my rear tyre.

After the ensuing tube replacement, the rest of the journey home was a slog to say the least - harder, in fact, than any part of the Lyme Regis marathon. This was possibly because the trip was unplanned, which I always find harder to prepare for psychologically compared to a 'scheduled' journey. The icing on the cake was provided by a second puncture in as many hours. At least this one was just on the outskirts of Wareham, so for the second time this year I was subjected to the indignity of limping home pushing the bike rather than sailing down West Street, arms aloft, like the triumphant winner of the Giro d'Dorset from my dreams.

The Shrike was to be my final addition to the year list for May, which saw 16 new birds added in total - my third highest monthly tally after January and April. I cycled 355 miles during the course of the month, just 5 miles shy of my highest monthly total of 360 in April, bringing the year list up to 187 in the process.

Red-backed Shrike, Portland, 30 May

June...

A bit odd to be talking about June on Christmas Day, I know, but with stomachs and the dishwasher groaning under the weight of the day's gluttony, it seems like as good a time as any to chalk off another month in my review of the year. And the temperature outside is about the same too. Oh, a very merry Christmas by the way, and thanks for reading - I know it's been hard going lately with all this reminiscing.

Speaking of which, back to June and early in the month I combined a quick trip to Cornwall to see the long-staying Dalmatian Pelican of unknown origin with a return via Branscombe in Devon to search for Wood White butterflies - a rare species in these parts which were quite easy to find on the crumbling undercliff. A memorable day, not least as the car broke down, as if chiding me for twitching the Pelican.

Dalmatian Pelican, Drift Reservoir

A spectacular bird, though whether it will make Category A of the British list is another matter

Wood White at Branscombe - my photo of the month for June 2016

Some other rare butterflies featured prominently on my travels in June. A visit to Kent on business provided the opportunity to catch up with Heath Fritillaries in the Blean Woods, while Small Pearl-bordered and Marsh Fritillaries were on the wing closer to home in Dorset. A beautiful but fussy family with particular habitat requirements, all facing long-term decline, though the Marsh Fritillaries are at least doing well on the chalk in Dorset. A bit of moth-trapping in our Wareham garden also made for some family fun, a monster Privet Hawk being the highlight.

Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary, Purbeck

Marsh Fritillary, Cerne Abbas

Heath Fritillary, Blean Woods

Mid-month  saw the whole family heading to Norfolk in a campervan for the weekend, and an opportunity to add Great Knot to my British list followed by a fry-up in the van - twitching in style! It was good to be able to combine some birding with some family time, though getting them up in the morning proved a challenge - the Great Knot was only seen thanks to an early morning lift from Dave Bradnum while they were all still in bed. Cheers Dave.

Great Knot, Titchwell Beach, Norfolk: bird of the month for June

Red-backed Shrike - a smart male snapped whilst in Kent

Privet Hawkmoth in our Wareham garden

Bonus birds on Scilly

While the Cliff Swallow was the main target of Saturday's visit to St Mary's, the time of year meant that there was always likely to be a selection of other good birds to see even had it not been there.

Lesser Yellowlegs, Porth Hellick

Compare and contrast to this Greater Yellowlegs from Titchfield Haven, April 2015

The Lesser Yellowlegs in context of the habitat at Porth Hellick Pool

A dainty and attractive wader

A long-staying Lesser Yellowlegs was our first American vagrant of the day, entertaining us by strutting around outside the seaward hide at Porth Hellick at point blank range while we waited for the Cliff Swallow to wake up. It was accompanied by several Greenshanks, Dunlin and singles of Green and Common Sandpiper - though the juvenile Temminck's Stint which I had hoped would stick until the weekend seemed to have moved on.

I have seen several Lesser Yellowlegs, but not since my first at Abberton Reservoir in 1998 (before I was into photography) had I seen one so close

The white rump was obvious in flight

This reminds me of the cartoon Roadrunner

A good view of the open wing and tail

On leaving Porth Hellick, a few Wheatears punctuated the walk around the perimeter of the airfield as we ambled through the heat of the midday sun which had by then burnt off the grey clouds of early morning. The Standing Stones field in the Old Town proved to be a bit of a migrant trap with a Red-backed Shrike and a couple each of Spotted Flycatcher and Whinchat providing some variety. A Clouded Yellow which buzzed quickly past was my first of the year - Scilly is always a good place to see them.

Common Sandpiper, Porth Hellick

Dunlin, Porth Hellick

I thought we might have another American vagrant on our hands when Rowan said 'Dad, what's this Black Duck?' Hopes were dashed when I raised my bins to this iridescent freak-show reject!

Small Copper at Porth Hellick

All too soon Rowan and I had to return to the airport for our 1425 return flight - but it had already been a memorable day. A brief cruise around Davidstow Airfield on the way home failed to produce the hoped for Buff-breasted Sandpiper (one was found there today) but that still couldn't wipe the smile off our tired and happy faces. Looking back I can't quite believe I agonised so much over whether or not to go, and next time I have resolved to be more decisive. For me, that will mean eschewing the usual full business case development process in favour of just the outline version, slimming down the cost-benefit analysis to a mere 10 pages, and restricting the normally extensive stakeholder consultation to just immediate family. And maybe a few close friends...

Juv Red-backed Shrike near the Old Town

Spotted Flycatcher in the same field as the Shrike

The Flycatcher shares a branch with a Whinchat

Rowan gets the hang of photography at Porth Hellick

Far and wide

Work and leisure have involved a fair bit of travelling lately - not exactly to the ends of the earth, but opposite corners of England at least, from Kent to Cumbria within the course of last week. Kent was a work engagement, speaking to the Kent Nature Partnership about some research we commissioned in Dorset to illustrate the importance of a healthy environment to a successful economy. A lovely audience, who laughed at my bad jokes and murmured appreciatively at all the right moments. It was good to be back and catch up with some old friends, including the Kent Wildlife Trust boss John Bennett.

Heath Fritillary - a fresh male

A full-bodied female

The striking underwing pattern of a roosting Heath Fritillary

Another roosting individual, bathed in sunshine

Whilst there, I found time to squeeze in a visit to one of John's reserves, East Blean Woods, which plays host to one of our rarest and most attractive butterflies, the Heath Fritillary. Reassuringly, good numbers were on the wing. The speaking engagement (at the stately University of Greenwich campus in Medway) was also just around the corner from the hedgerow chosen by a long-staying male Red-backed Shrike - not something you see every day - so I managed a peek at that too on the way home.

Heath Fritillary: an eye-catching aberration

C'mon folks, get a room...

Male Red-backed Shrike: a mobile bird which came reasonably close at one point

A male Red-backed Shrike is a very dapper bird

Last weekend saw us heading up the M6 to the other corner of our green and pleasant land for a family gathering to mark my big brother's 50th. He was down from Clackmannanshire, parents up from Devon, and sis up from Brighton so it was quite a logistical feat to get us all in the same county let alone the same room. An idyllic setting in the Lake District was a bit damp for much in the way of wildlife watching - though 48 hours with my extended family provided plenty of opportunity to study animal behaviour...

House Martin picking food items off the tarmac in the Lake District

Peregrines at Warton Crag

Ringlet at Warton Crag

Ringlet underside

A brief stopover just off the M6 on the way home in Lancashire did enable me to see my first Northern Brown Argus for over a decade on the limestone crags above Warton, as well as some newly fledged Peregrines on the wing. With just a month to go before Hen Harrier Day 2016, at least one pair of northern raptors have survived the attentions of their persecutors.

Northern Brown Argus, Warton Crag

Northern Brown Argus nectaring on bramble

Northern Brown Argus underside

A backlit Northern Brown Argus at Warton Crag to end a flying visit to the north west

Baled out by the RBS

On Wednesday, my trusty 400mm lens was pointing at an exquisite Wilson's Warbler on the Isle of Lewis. Unfortunately, I wasn't behind it, as I had lent it to my butter-fingered friend Steve Smith, who dropped his a few weeks ago. Greater love hath no man than this: that he lend out his lens for his friend's lifer.

Those birders who weren't en route or on the way back from Lewis all seemed to be heading to Norfolk for the weekend, where a feast of eastern rarities was on offer. I was unable to join them either due to domestic commitments, so by this morning I was going pretty stir crazy in sleepy Dorset. There was nothing for it but to make myself 'unavailable for selection' in the Wareham Rangers under-13s parental fan club, opting for a day's birding instead.

A morning spent around Purbeck was pretty unsuccessful, bird-wise, so it was looking like it might be a pretty bleak weekend all in all. Then, remembering that Portland was chock full of Short-eared Owls, and that I have yet to photograph that species in 2015, I turned tail and headed there for the afternoon. Before I got to the Bill, however, news came through of a Red-backed Shrike at Suckthumb Quarry, reappearing in that location after a three day absence. I was minutes away so detoured there instead.

There are two main types of shrike - flighty shrikes, or approachable shrikes. Fortunately, this was one of the latter. I grabbed a few shots, scooted off on an owl hunt (more on that later) and went back for more when the late afternoon sun came out. A wonderfully confiding little bird, it was a real tonic to spend some time with it - and about time RBS saved the day. #227 on the photo year list.