Not quite on the garden list...

...but not far off. This stunning Red-footed Falcon was a short walk from home in Wareham.

 

Dodgy ducks

Sunday saw me scraping the barrel a bit for photo year ticks - but it added a dash of colour at least. First up was a Mandarin Duck in Bournemouth, part of a small feral population there. I used to have to wait until a visit to the family home in the Forest of Dean to see these, where they are virtually guaranteed at Cannop Ponds. While common and widespread in Asia, it is sometimes said that the British population at least provides some back up should anything catastrophic happen in its home range. Not inconceivable given that declines in China and Russia mean that Japan is now the stronghold of the species. Having lowered the bar of entry to the photo year list to admit Mandarin, it was a short leap ethically speaking to do the same with Red-crested Pochard, a pair of which turned up at nearby Longham Lakes.

Drake Mandarin Duck (#182)

Don't think I've ever see one fly before so these photos are a bit of a rarity

A more typical view

Note the flattened 'sail' made by the orange tertials, usually held upright

Not quite as colourful but still exotic were a pair of Red-crested Pochard at Longham (#183)

House Martin at Longham (#184)

A Grey Heron catches a newt sp. at Longham. The Mallard thought it was hilarious.

And another almost forgotten photo year tick - Cetti's Warbler at Swineham on Saturday (#185) 

Oh, and in equally inconsequential news, today I finally passed the minor landmark of 100,000 all time page views on this blog. It's taken a while, so to the small but loyal band of readers who check in from time to time, thank you for bothering, it makes the effort worthwhile. I hope reading it provides as welcome a distraction from the harrowing realities of existence as does writing it.

Quality time on the bog

I managed a hat-trick of visits to Morden Bog this weekend - the first, on Saturday, was a bit of a flyer, as I was just passing and didn't have long. I did a circuit of the Old Decoy Pond and heard just a single Tree Pipit singing - doing the same again the following day at more leisure produced a more respectable eleven singing males. The highlight of Saturday's visit, however, was a Hobby hawking dragonflies over the pond.

Back again early on Sunday morning a vocal but elusive Cuckoo finally gave itself up for a photo. Other heathland specialities were also in evidence - scratchy Dartfords and musical Woodlarks - while a Green Hairstreak was my first of the year. But for the apparent inability of numerous dog walkers to observe the polite signs asking them to keep their dogs under control, it was a pretty perfect place to spend some time.

Cuckoo, Morden Bog (#179)

Tree Pipit (#180)

Meadow Pipit with a Common Heath moth

A male Redstart was singing from a lofty perch

It was the last day of this month in 2014 when the famous Short-toed Eagle was found, shortly before its tour of southern heathlands took it to the New Forest and Ashdown Forest. So I found myself looking up in anticipation every time a crow went up to mob a raptor, but it was never for anything rarer than a Buzzard.

Male Stonechat

Stonechats look like they might have a good breeding year

Another young Stonechat

Green Hairstreak

And a late entry for the photo year list - a backlit Spotted Flycatcher on Portland last weekend (#181)

Finally, an enjoyable camping trip

Regular readers will be familiar with my loathing of life under canvas, but this weekend I actually found a way to enjoy a camping trip. Specifically, by just being a day visitor to the Sandy Balls tentopolis in the New Forest, where the rest of the family were spending a sleepless and scurvid couple of days. Hooking up with them on Saturday, after a good night's sleep, and leaving them to it that evening, just as the cold started to eat at those parts which the midges had yet to reach, was my kind of camping. Even better, I didn't even have to seek permission to be excused: I have become such an unhappy camper that this time I was instructed not to go. As an extra bonus, there was just time before setting off to meet them for a morning walk around Swineham, and I haven't managed that a lot lately. A single photo tick for the year was on offer in the form of a Little Gull.

Little Gull, Swineham (#178)

Little Gull is a regular spring visitor at Swineham

A Broad-bodied Chaser would be a bit of a mouthful for a Little Gull...

...Four-spotted Chaser only slightly less so

I think this is a female Azure Blue Damselfly. My field guide says best distinguished from similar species by 'examination in the hand of the posterior lobe of the pronotum'. I don't know my pronotum from a hole in the ground so that's not much use.

Goldfinch is less of an identification challenge

 A more dowdy juvenile suggests local breeding success

This Long-tailed Tit was also not long out of the nest

Surely one of the cutest of fledglings

And speaking of breeding, here's a Little Egret in full courtship garb - note the pink lores and reddish feet

No, I didn't go

And yes, I am bitter. But only slightly. Having prematurely suggested in Saturday's post that I hadn't jinxed myself by predicting a mega during my weekend 'on call', I realised the next morning I had done precisely that when news broke of a Citril Finch in Norfolk. By when, even if I could have arranged some cover, I was committed to supporting wife and sons in Poole at the Rainbow Run, in my capacity as official family photographer. The thought of leaving them to it as they perspired for worthy causes never entered my head, of course, and I didn't even get close to calculating that if I left them to get the train home I could do the 248.3 miles from Wareham to Holkham in 5 hrs 3 mins, giving me a couple of hours before dark to look for the bird.

Citril Finch, French Alps, 2011

All academic of course, as I couldn't go anyway, and now history too, as, unlike the other spring weekend rarities which I lauded recently, it chose not to stick around. At least this left Sunday afternoon free to twitch Portland with Steve Smith, though a frustrating session searching for Golden Orioles ended with mixed feelings as I managed to clap eyes on a perched bird which flew before I could raise my lens, and before Steve was able to join me. As he was driving, this raised the spectre of the man overboard scenario from our Great Blue Heron twitch. Fortunately, he rose above it and didn't make me walk home. Cheers mate!

Yours truly swells with pride as the rest of the family power to the finish line

Another Anthus

Well I almost jinxed myself, predicting that my luck would run out this weekend. And so it appeared after I managed to spend all but 20 minutes of a 4 hour stint on Portland at the Bill this morning, only to find that a flock of 10 Pom Skuas chose that slot to cruise past the famous obelisk. I was already heading home to take it out on the guinea pigs, having reached the outskirts of Weymouth, when a phone call from Steve Smith brought news of a Portland Bird Obs tweet reporting a Tawny Pipit back at the Bill. Good job too, as I was able to turn tail and tick it, just 5 minutes before it was lost to view. It took 15 minutes for the same news to be relayed by pager, so had I had to wait for that I would almost certainly have missed out on a new bird for my Dorset list.

So, my 4th rare pipit for 2015, following Blyth's, Richard's and Red-throated. Meadow, Rock and Tree are all in the bag, and with, in approximate order of likelihood, Water, Olive-backed, Buff-bellied and Pechora all possible, a 10 or even an 11 pipit species year could be on, if only in my dreams! During the earlier seawatch, Pom-gate notwithstanding, some decent sightings and terrible photos were assembled to keep the photo yearlist ticking over. Pictures below: be warned, they start off poor and get worse. But all identifiable!

Kittiwake - several small flocks passed the Bill this morning (#170)

Majestic Gannets maintained interest during the seawatch (#171)

A single Puffin drifted past Pulpit Rock then flew back past me (#172)

Great Northern Diver - one of two west past the Bill this morning (#173)

Bonxie - the first of two (#174)

Arctic Skua - one of two dark phase birds seen (#175)

Small flocks of Manx Shearwater were on the move (#176)

The Tawny Pipit was distant in a heat haze but scope views were good (#177)

A large, pale pipit with plain upperparts and unmarked underparts