Western woodlands

I grew up in the Forest of Dean but since my folks moved to Devon several years ago, my opportunities to go back have been few and far between. This means that once regular visits to Nagshead to see summer migrants in the oak woodlands have become a thing of the past. I failed to catch up with a Pied Flycatcher or a Wood Warbler on migration this spring in Dorset - it was a pretty poor year for both at our coastal watch-points - and only saw my first Redstart of the year when it was back on territory in Wareham Forest.

Male Pied Flycatcher, Yarner Wood

This male appeared to be bringing a caterpillar back for a female presumably sitting on eggs in a nestbox 

Photographing black and white birds in the dappled light of the wood was challenging to say the least. And when the light was good, the view was obscured!

So when a family camping trip last weekend left me surplus to requirements, I seized the opportunity of a Sunday drive to one of my nearest Pied Flycatcher breeding areas - Yarner Wood in Devon, on the eastern edge of Dartmoor, less than two hours from home. I had visited this area on a summer holiday a few years ago but the Pied Flycatchers had already shipped out. So I knew where to go but not exactly where the best areas for seeing the birds might be. I needn't have worried - the answer was just about everywhere! Every other nestbox seemed to host a pair, many choosing to set up camp right next to the path and chip aggressively at passers by.

Many of the Pied Flycatchers bore leg rings

Flycatcher doing what it says on the tin

A male in full song

In contrast to the apparent abundance of Pied Flycatchers, Wood Warblers seemed to be having a terrible year. I bumped into a chap who said he had seen one going into a nearby nestbox. This didn't sound quite right as Wood Warblers don't use nestboxes, and it would be singing almost constantly at this time of year. I returned to my friend to ask if he was sure about what he'd seen and he showed me a photo he had taken of a female Pied Fly. Okay, they're not the hardest species to separate but let's not be too judgemental, we all have to start somewhere...

Females were more elusive, generally sitting on eggs - but this one came out to stretch her wings

Just the one Spotted Flycatcher seen - but it was certainly making itself heard

This Redstart was one of several singing males

I wandered off again and it transpired that my friend had fallen foul of some numerical as well as avian confusion - he had been advised to look for a Wood Warbler near a numbered nest box ending in '13' but, when I eventually tuned in to the familiar cascade of shimmering notes from a singing Wood Warbler, and looked at the nearest nestbox, I realised he had misheard what must have been described to him as a '30'. One of the reserve staff came by soon after and broke the unhappy news that I had located the only singing Wood Warbler in Yarner Wood.

Wood Warbler

The Wood Warbler stayed high in the canopy

A lovely bird to hear and to watch in song - the whole body shakes with the effort

I could see bling on both of the Wood Warbler's legs which I assumed had been fitted when it was a nestling, but the warden explained that it had in fact only recently been colour-ringed and fitted with a geo-locator. Hopefully this can provide some insight into what might have gone wrong for its congeners on the long migration to tropical Africa to inform future conservation efforts.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary on the path at Yarner Wood - a male I think judging by the slim abdomen

One of our rarer species, getting a helping hand on Dartmoor via Butterfly Conservation's All the Moor Butterflies project

The beautiful underwing of the Pearl-bordered Fritillary

While the Wood Warbler tally was a tad depressing, Redstarts seemed to be doing okay with several singing males, and a Spotted Flycatcher also brightened up a glade which was otherwise full of its Pied cousins. A nearby clearing produced another highlight - a colony of Pearl-bordered Fritillary. Initially very active in the hot and sheltered micro-climate of the clearing, the sun went in just long enough to cause one to snap its wings shut to reveal the diagnostic - and very striking - underwing pattern. An uplifting spring day in western oak woodland - just what the doctor ordered.

Out on the moor proper I could not find a Whinchat, but Meadow Pipits were plentiful

Small Copper on Dartmoor

The first Pied Flycatcher of the day in Yarner Wood

Lemon and Lyme

Before the Bank Holiday weekend was so rudely interrupted by that Prince of the LBJs, the Red-throated Pipit, I was enjoying some quality time with the family at various events around Dorset, such as the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival. The place was heaving with it on Sunday so I dropped the gang off near the sea front and headed back out of town in search of parking.

A dash of Lemon: Wood Warbler, Cogden (#168)



And a slice of Lyme: Dipper, Lyme Regis (#169)

A space was located conveniently close to a stretch of the River Lym, along whose length I would now have to walk to get back to the town centre, and where I knew there would be a good chance of catching up with Dipper, a rare breeding bird in Dorset. After a bit of fruitless searching, eventually a piercing call in the distance carried sufficiently far over the sound of running water to get me in the right area and an obliging bird posed for photos whilst filling its beak with morsels harvested from the river bed.

Species new to science: Glass-headed Dipper

Brilliant camouflage given away by the white eyelid.

Then it was into the throng of the Festival, where I was impressed by the diversity of the factions which inhabit the niche markets of the earth sciences. The Geological Society exhibited just across from the Geologist's Association, with more than a frisson of competitiveness, I felt. The Paleontological Society rubbed shoulders, not altogether cordially, one secretly hoped, with the Paleontological Association. But both were perhaps united in their hatred of the common enemy: the Micropaleontological Association. Splitters! Actually, much to my disappointment they all seemed to be getting along just fine and it was a great event for getting folks, particularly younger folks, excited about the marvels of rocks, fossils and our very own World Heritage Site.

Someone's child plays recklessly among the boulders while their parents are doing goodness knows what...

...probably photographing the local Rock Pipits or something.

Duty thus fulfilled, and at the price of the promise of a pub meal later at the Smugglers Inn, near where Dorset's legendary Siberian Rubythroat was found, I was allowed what has become known as a 'Daddy stop' on the way home to look for a Wood Warbler at Cogden. The bird had been found singing that morning by Mike Morse, but the copse was silent on my arrival. Being an ace birder - OK, OK being an average birder on a lucky streak - I was able to locate it in the low canopy after a short search and get a few record shots, the lemon yellow face and white underparts glowing despite the fading light.

Claire often asks how I can justify the cost of twitching birds far from home when I am normally so careful with our finances. I point out that it's cheaper than twitching birds close to home if the rest of the family is with me, as they usually extort the promise of an expensive meal on the way home as compensation. Given their tolerance of several recent excursions of late, however, I can't really blame them. And it saves on washing up.

Wood and spoons

The lure of Portland proved too strong again this afternoon. A family outing to the Bill, via a Black-winged Stilt at Lodmoor, started disappointingly when it seemed we might have left it too late to catch up with the earlier passage of Pomarine Skua. A small crowd of seawatchers at the Bill dispersed as news filtered through that a flock of 21 Poms which had been on the sea, and which they were hoping would make their way past us, had flown high and probably over the island.


Wood Warbler, Portland Castle

The Wood Warbler's white underside glowed against the dark backdrop of a dense conifer

The grounds of Portland Castle have proven to be an excellent migrant trap

A burst of song from the Wood Warbler

After a pleasant hour during which I found a Puffin and James Lowther picked up a Black Tern, the only other remaining birder's phone rang with a tip off from Chesil Cove that another Pom was on its way towards us. Armed and ready, it duly appeared soon after at the back of a flock of Manx Shearwater, and gave probably the closest fly-past I have enjoyed of this species.

Pomarine Skua with distinctive spoon-shaped tail feathers

Small flocks of Manx Shearwater headed east past the Bill

A single flock of Common Scoter also buzzed past

There was just time to twitch a singing Wood Warbler at Portland Castle on the way back. Elusive it first, a few pius and shimmering trills eventually gave it away and, despite kids (not mine) running and shouting under its favoured trees, it performed well for the camera in difficult light conditions. We have an English Heritage family membership card which I have been lobbying Claire to ditch in the interests of our finances, but I was glad of it this afternoon as it gave me access to the inner sanctum of the castle grounds where the Warbler showed best.

Kittiwake, Portland Bill

A very distant Puffin at Portland Bill

And an equally distant Black-winged Stilt at Lodmoor

Flying Visit to the Forest

My parents are moving house from my native Forest of Dean to Devon in a few weeks time so I went back at the weekend to rescue a few items from the skip. Mum tried to fob me off with a scrapbook of cards and notes which I had sent her over the years. I declined and pointed out she was moving house, not dying.

Blackcap - one of many songsters at Nagshead RSPB

The visit provoked some mixed feelings: no longer having the family home to visit in the place you grew up is a bit sad; no longer having a convenient, free place to crash before early morning visits to Nagshead RSPB (or one of mother's hearty breakfasts to look forward to on returning) even sadder.

Pied Flycatcher - male

On the other hand, when I go back now, there will be less risk of offending the folks by neglecting them in favour of Wood Warblers, Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts down the road. And a whole new world of opportunities to offend them by bunking off to look for wildlife in North Devon when I go and visit them there.

Pied Flycatcher - male

Anyway, Dad joined me this morning for a 'last' look around, and we were treated to a singing Wood Warbler near the main path, it's whole body shaking with the effort.

Pied Flycatcher - male

Any melancholy was quickly washed away by the Warbler plus good numbers of Pied Flycatchers, a close but all too brief Goshawk through a gap in the canopy, and a drumming, calling but ultimately unseen Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

Rabbit near the visitor centre

No Redstarts seen today but I did hear one singing high in the oaks. Pied Flys seemed to be doing very well though. Most of the Flycatchers and the Wood Warbler bore rings - presumably returning birds ringed at the nest here?

Wood Warbler - male

Such a good place it seems churlish to complain about the cricked neck from trying to see out of the arrow-slit hide windows from badly positioned bench seats. But I've heard them moaned about far and wide (most recently in the ergonomically-challenged hide at Abbotsbuty Swannery where would-be Stilt-watchers needed stilts to see out), so why not.

Wood Warbler - male