Winter on the wing

I'm not a huge fan of rugby, but I do love the Six Nations. I went to a grammar school where the games master was sadistically fond of the game, to the extent that when, after a rare football match enabled me to show a turn of pace and score a couple of decent goals, instead of letting me start a team, he said he wanted to see me run down the wing like that in rugby.

Golden Plover, Maiden Castle

I was able to photograph these birds from the car window, using the car as a hide

Momentarily inspired, at the next available training opportunity I gave it a shot, regaining consciousness a few minutes later with a mouth full of dirt and the fat kid who had pummelled my head into the turf laughing over me. Thus ended a glittering rugby career, forsaken thereafter for cross-country, known in our school as 'the smoker's sport'.

Fieldfare near Wareham

Part of a large flock of winter thrushes

A wonder then that I look forward to the Six Nations at all, though in truth I do so not just for the sport but for what it signifies about the time of year: when the championship starts, it's still winter, and by the time it comes to a climax, spring will be underway. Here I am uploading photos of wintering thrushes, and by the time it's over, I fully expect to be posting images of the first migrant Wheatears of the year to hit the Dorset coast.

Fieldfare is often accompanied by...

...Redwing

Back-to-back bouts of man flu have curtailed my outdoor exploits of late, so it was good to curl up in front of the TV yesterday and watch the games, but today I felt well enough to drive to a few local spots which I knew would provide some opportunities to do a bit of birding and photography from the warmth and comfort of the car.

Robin

A dull boy

If you're thinking 'it's been so long since he posted anything that he must be working like a dog between jet-setting off to glamorous holiday locations', well, you'd be half right. The first half, specifically. The photo year list, around which this blog has been themed in 2015, ground to a shuddering halt on 202 following a Father's Day Terek Sandpiper. After bursting through the 200 barrier in style, with 3 lifers among my last 4 additions, I have had neither the time nor the energy to add to it, with some eminently achievable target species remaining unsnapped.

Silver-washed Fritillary (male)

Gatekeeper - male

Meadow Brown

The closest I have come to escaping the thraldom of wage slavery was a trip last weekend to see my parents in North Devon. Mainly bumbling around busy beaches and arcades, so not a lot of time for wildlife watching, but a walk from Lynmouth up the river to Watersmeet produced a family of Grey Wagtail every 100 yards or so, a couple of Dipper and a hyper-active Shrew - I think a Common Shrew, but how does one tell for sure? Star of the walk though was a stunning male Silver-washed Fritillary.

Dipper on the River Lyn

One of many young Grey Wagtails on the same

And who doesn't love a newly fledged Robin?

Still, August is fast approaching and with some holidays booked, including a few pelagic trips out of the Isles of Scilly, I aspire to resuming a better balance of work and play very soon, making this Jack a slightly less dull boy, I hope. Stand by for an upsurge in average photos, tawdry narratives and cheesy puns in this space. I know they have been missed.

Shrewd move. And he's back!

My book says Pygmy Shrew's tail is hairy, and this looks pretty bald. However, it also says Pygmy's tail is 70% of head and body length, Common Shrew's just 50%. But this tail looks nearly 100% of body length. Perhaps they only measure them once they've been run over. Anyway, that confused me.

Common Shrew has 3 toned fur - brown on top, paler on sides, paler still underneath. Pygmy 2 toned - brown on top, paler under. While this looks 3 toned in the photo, it's a tough call to make on a tiny mammal which bombs around at 100mph in the dark.

Anyway, a charming beast, snuffling it's way along a woodland path.




 

Binge birding continued...

This post is the final hangover from a weekend of binge birding around Poole Harbour. Holes Bay certainly provided the highlights on Sunday - as well as the Spoonbill, waiting patiently by the PC World drain outflow provided ample opportunity to get up close and personal with a variety of other good birds.

This Buzzard was one of two scanning for prey from lampposts on the dual carriageway around Holes Bay. Buzzard has already appeared on my blog this year but the photo was taken in 2014 so this is officially an addition to the photo year list (#79). I know, mad isn't it!

This Common Sandpiper was one of two present. I walked most of the length of the bay without seeing one but when I sat by the outflow both dropped in.

Another addition to the photo year list (#80). Bang it in!



Cormorant also graced the outflow (#81)...

...while I had to walk further up the drain to find Grey Wagtail (#82)...

...and Kingfisher (#83)

Spotted Redshank, one of my favourite birds, can give close views around the edge of the Bay

Spotted Redshank

On Sunday morning I also paid what felt like my first visit of the year to Swineham. Yes, my allegiance to patch has become that degenerate. I was rewarded for my efforts: as in, not much effort, not much reward. It did at least add a few ropey ticks to the photo year list:


Goldfinch, making its first appearance this year (#84)

Great Tit (#85) - singing like it was spring

Redwing in the shadows in Lady St Mary Churchyard, Wareham

Male Reed Bunting at Swineham

Robin at Swineham

Shelduck at Swineham (#86)

Several Common Snipe flushed from the wet grass around Swineham (#87)

Stock Dove (#88) with Lapwing in the paddocks at North Bestwall

Snowdrops added a spring-like feel to Sunday morning

My last photo year tick of the weekend was a Coal Tit seen on a family walk around Wareham Forest (#89)

The Fellowship of the Ging, Wareham Forest



Little Egret showing off its plumes in Holes Bay



And so this is Christmas...

...and what have I done? Well apart from over-indulging in a variety of victuals, solving seemingly intractable Lego-based challenges and spending way too much time with the family, there has been precious little in the way of birding. A quick trudge around a birdless patch therefore seemed in order today. I was hoping it would help me dredge up enough memories for a 'review of the year' post. Not quite, though it did serve as a reminder of all the good birds I have missed at Swineham in 2014. In fact, I managed to display spectacularly bad form in this regard, even by the low standards of my fickle patch-watching career.

A Grey Wagtail brought a dash of colour to Swineham this morning

It all started in April when a pair of Black-winged Stilts appeared no sooner than we had gone to Cornwall for a week's holiday. Others were seeing a Great White Egret in the area through the spring but I failed to connect despite several early morning and late afternoon vigils. The dipping continued into autumn when a White-winged Black Tern eluded me and I failed to connect with Marcus's Yellow-browed Warbler. The Neil Warnock-like run of bad luck finally came to an end in early December when Paul Morton's Bean Geese did the decent thing and stuck around long enough for me to catch up with them.

Shoveler: one of a 40+ flock at Swineham this morning

According to an erratically populated notebook, the Beans were one of only six patch ticks this year. The others - Garganey, Black-necked Grebe, Smew, Egyptian Goose and Turnstone (get in!) - all good patch fare if not exactly patch gold. Not a bad return though, given how little time I spent there: the first part of the year, any spare time I had seemed to be spent chasing around after rarities; the latter part, getting to grips with a new job which had quite an impact on the energy and time I had left for birding anywhere, including Swineham.

Little Grebe at Swineham

Throw in an apparent rise in the number of non-birding visitors (and four-legged ones), and the increase in the use of the gravel pits for water sports, and it seemed at times like I was not the only one who had forsaken the old patch: quite a lot of the bird life seemed to have too! Perhaps in 2015 foul weather, all year round floods and general lack of visitation will bring them back. Well, I can dream, can't I?

A belated Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for reading this year. No snow-covered cliché perches for the Swineham Christmas Robin: he much prefers to rest on expensive optics.

One step ahead of me...

With the annual family holiday on Scilly approaching, and with Friday an inset day at school, we were free to head off to Cornwall earlier than usual. News of a Scarlet Tanager near Porthcurno broke on Thursday night, persuading me to bundle the family in the car in the hope of hastening our arrival in West Penwith the following morning. We made it as far as Okehampton before crashing in the nearest Chavelodge, and en route to St Levan the next morning the pager confirmed that the bird was still present.

Arriving at 11:00, it was seen once more in flight by a single observer about 100 yards from where the bulk of the crowd (including me) were standing before vanishing completely. This Robin was one of the few birds present, and I felt slightly mocked by its muted, melancholy sub-song. I hung around until 17:00 when my bored, tired children demanded a change of scene. Shortly after I left the pager reported - erroneously as it turned out - that the bird was still present, at which point I didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

Tanager food. But no Tanager.

I returned on Saturday morning just in case and spent another three hours looking at the empty pear tree and elms where the bird had been seen the previous day but to no avail. On the way back to pick up the rest of the family, a scrambled pager message appeared in which I could just make out the gist of 'Sc8rlet Tan&ger'. A bout of cursing ensued until a follow up message revealed that this one was on the Isles of Scilly - where we were heading in a couple of hours time. Hope renewed, we touched down at 14:45 and I was on site by 15:00, only to find that the bird had not been seen since just after 14:00. It was not seen again.