Winter Coastal Birding - Hengistbury Head, Poole Park and Baiter Park - 28th - 30th November 201813/12/2018 It has taken me a while to get round to writing this blog post despite the fact that it is about 2 of the best days birding I have had since the summer. Unfortunately assignments and the fact that I have been ill have stopped me from writing this, however today with the beginning of the Christmas Holidays and my health now much better I have decided to write up my experience from these days. I actually suspect that this trip to Hengistbury Head on the 28th might have played a part in me becoming ill just due to the fact that I went out in utterly atrocious conditions. I took the bus down to Hengistbury at the civilised time of 7:30 and as soon as I stepped of the bus I became drenched. I didn't bother getting my camera out at this stage just because the rain was just too heavy and the wind didn't help either with 50 or possibly even 60mph gusts. Once I arrived on the headland the place was largely bird less and completely void of all the usual dog walkers and runners. I was literally the only thing dumb enough to be out in this sort of weather. A few soggy sheltering Meadow Pipits were encountered in the dunes along with a rather soggy Pied Wagtail and a few Stonechat. I carried on towards the headland with the rain now starting to decrease visibility even further. This is the sort of weather where the sea becomes the best chance of picking up something interesting especially during the winter, however only a cormorant could be picked up in my now steamed up binoculars. To be honest it was pleasantly quiet and I quite enjoyed having some time by myself. Just when I thought the day wasn't going to improve I picked up something that looked interesting coming over the long groyne at the end of the cliff. It then started to gain height until when it flew past me on its quest west it was at my eye level. It was a Red-throated Diver and to say that I was happy to see it was probably an understatement for even those in the watch tower saw me punch the air. Although not particularly rare I knew that I really only had a small window to see one here before the Christmas holidays and well I got one on the first attempt which is unusual for me. I wasn't done yet though as just as I was passing a Little Grebe and a few Stonechat at Quarry Pond I picked up something coming in from the West and heading in my direction. I watched as it came towards me and as it flew over my head I had another punch the air with pure joy moment as the Great Northern Diver flew over on its way into the relative shelter of the Solent. This species is the rarer of the two species and only a few individuals overwinter in this part of the UK and infact if I am not mistake this was the first sighting in the area of the winter which is good. If I thought the weather couldn't get any worse, it did, however by this stage I didn't really care anymore with 2 patch ticks/ Dorset ticks safely in the bag. Infact what I saw next was odd as when I reached the bottom of the stair case right at the top of the headland a Male Pheasant flew out of one of the buses there. This rather oddly is a patch tick for me here and a rather odd place to find one. Muddeford had a decent array of sheltering waders with a Curlew, 6 Dunlin and 8 Redshank. Onto the woodland and a Firecrest in with the Goldcrest flock was a decent discovery, however 2 Redwing in sheltering from the storm where my first ever in Dorset from what I can recall so was a rather odd patch and county tick. 14 sheltering Stock Dove was also an odd find. Just when I thought the weather couldn't get worse the rain stopped for a brief moment and as it stopped I could see out into Christchurch harbour just far enough to see a female Eider Duck bobbing just offshore alongside a Great Crested Grebe and 2 Little Grebe. The female Eider is the first that I have ever seen settled on the water and to be honest they remind me of a clunky Scoter. Every time she dived she would almost flip her tail up and slap the water behind her in a rather untidy display. The only advantage is that she was really good at bringing back up food with muscles, crabs, and even what I think was a crayfish being devoured. Above: Female Eider Below: Great Crested Grebe That Eider was something quite incredible, however just as I was about to leave I flushed a sheltering Kingfisher out of the bush beside me and it flew along the sea wall before landing on it a bit further down and then subsequently flying up into another bush to get out of the wind. A flock of Brent Geese erupted out of the marsh flushing 2 Black-tailed Godwit and a Ringed Plover. Eventually the rain came back in and just before I left one last hurrah saw me find a a flock of 5 Goosander which was a surprise to see. And so at 10:30 with the rain starting to get the better of me I decided to head for home. Looking back at this day I had 7 patch ticks, however I am not entirely sure I am ever going to go back there in such terrible conditions! Above: Kingfisher Below: Brent Geese Above: 4f, 1m Goosander If there is anything that wet Hengistbury day then it is that perseverance sometimes pays of and with it you can only make your own luck. The final day of the month was the complete opposite of Hengistbury with glorious sunshine and a chill in the still crisp air. The ornamental ponds had the usual Mallards and Canada Geese and the cricket pitch still had that odd mix of Oystercatchers and Geese with around 40 Oystercatchers on the field, well that was until a dog ran right through the middle of the flock and sent them scattering in all directions. It was a bit like flying bowling pins except they didn't return and instead they headed off in the direction of Baiter Park. I then headed towards the main boating lake passing a Goldcrest, a mixed Tit flock and an unusually placed Grey Wagtail on the miniature railway. When I reached the main boating lake quite usefully there were some people feeding the Mute Swans and therefor I was able to read 7 Colour rings from the local Mute Swans including 2 new birds which I hadn't seen before and also the firm favourites such as SLR, T9V, T5N and B9E. (When I do eventually get back the data from the rings I will let you know about any interesting life history). Also enjoying the free food were the regular Black-headed Gulls, a few Coots, and also a decent sized raft of Tufted Duck. Above: female Tufted Ducks Below: Mute Swan Above: Drake Tufted Duck Below: Juv Mute Swan moving on I found a rather tame Greylag Goose that didn't seem phased by the amount of people walking past where it was sitting right out in the middle of the public footpath. A Pair of Pied Wagtails were also keeping it company, however they took the more sensible approach of preening themselves on the grass verge next to the path. Above: Greylag Below: Pied Wagtail I then headed round to just past the café where the Mandarin Duck usually is, however today he was over on the ornamental ponds near the children's playground. In his place were however 7 Little Grebe and 10 Goldeneye. I have to admit I spent the next hour or so watching the Goldeneye performing their head bobbing displays with 5 drakes speeding around after the 5 females. All I am going to say is that their charismatic displays are worth going and seeing at some point and to give you a taster I will add some videos below. I just love the energy they put into throwing their head back and forth. The are just another amazing piece of nature. Above: Goldeneye After spending far too long watching the Goldeneye I decided to head over to Baiter Park. Usually my quick scan of the bay produces nothing however I was surprised when I picked up 2 female Red-breasted Mergansers, 3 Great Crested Grebe, and a Goldeneye which must have all come in after the storm the day before. Most of the birds were distant, however the female Red-breasted Mergansers slowly came closer in and this to be honest was my first ever look at a settled Merganser that I can remember. So yes you guessed it I ended up watching these birds diving and being quite successful in their catching for way too long. Having grown up in London moments like these are so hard to come by as they are predominantly a sea bird. They do turn up occasionally on reservoirs however they tend to turn up on those that are near impossible to reach by transport. Above: Female Red-breasted Mergansers I have to admit what I found next was most unexpected and as I keep reminding myself and others as well its the moments like these that we constantly strive towards. Yes its nothing major, but its still good to find something yourself even if it is at the end of the day a bit of luck, sometime that's what you need luck. I decided to have one last scan of the harbour between Baiter and Brownsea to see if there was anything about and all of a sudden amongst the Buoys up pop a summer Plumaged Great Northern Diver. As it popped up it took one large stretch before diving again and it wasn't subsequently seen. This is the first summer plumaged Great Northern Diver that I have ever seen and it is also the first that I have seen at such close range as well. I also believe that it was the first bird to be seen in the harbour during the 2018/2019 winter. Above: The best I could manage of its brief appearance After this stunning discovery I turned my attention to the Brent Geese and Oystercatchers that were on the playing field behind me, making the most of the feeding opportunity. I do love Brent Geese and its quite odd seeing them side by side with Oystercatchers as they are a pretty similar size and it just doesn't look right. A few Starlings were the last addition to my list before I decided to call it a day and headed for the bus. Above: Brent Geese Below: Starling And so another great weekend of winter birding on the south coast was had with some Divers, Ducks and Geese. I wonder what will be instore on my next visits? And so with my year list sitting on 192 species and my life list on 223 I wonder what will be their next additions?
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This month has been my busiest yet at Uni so finding the time to write my blog post has been quite hard. This blog post will therefore include a little summary of each visit I made during the month, including quite a few colour ringed mute swans. Nov 4th - Hengistbury Head Now that the clocks have turned birding has become increasingly hard and thus today when I left at 3pm I had forgotten that it was going to be dark before I had done any meaningful birding. When I reached Wick I headed down towards the area of flooded grassland where a few Snipe and Teal are usually pottering about. The Teal today were fast asleep in the fading light, however something else caught my attention and eventually it screamed as a second chased it out of cover and they flew fighting with each other until one tumbled into a fence post and lost its grasp. Much to my surprise they were in fact Water Rails and eventually I had counted at least 3 birds wading around the grassland. I stood and waited for a little while and eventually one came out in the open right next to me seemingly not minding my company at all. I watched as it paraded through the long muddy grass and watched as it gracefully plucked little insects off the surface of the mud. What stunning little birds they are. This was unfortunately all I really saw on this visit as it was pretty much pitch black by the time I had reached the other end of Wick which was a shame. Above: Colour Ringed Mute Swan E5S Below: Black-headed Gull Above and Below: The best I could manage of the Water Rails in the poor light conditions. November 5th - Hengistbury Head I have to admit that I headed down to Hengistbury the following day in the aim of hopefully finding something of use, however as my luck would have it the area was rather dull with at times only Stonechats for company. A few Darties were around in some unusual places, however otherwise everything was as normal as I headed along the headland. Above: Male Stonechat I then headed right down to the end of the headland and upon looking back I could see that a large flock of around 250 Lapwing had taken to the sky and were literally spiralling higher and high until they were just tiny specs in the sky heading North West and inland. Shortly after this a small flock of 11 Black-tailed Godwits flew over at a decent height heading into the Solent having been a bit lazy and cutting across the headland. They looked as though they continued their decent and landed somewhere over in the general direction of Hurst Castle Spit. This was definitely a day of movement, however although there were the numbers in the sky the amount of birds on the deck was one of the worst I have seen in a while in any location. I then headed down along the Mudeford Spit and along here found a few sheltering Oystercatchers and also a few Turnstone as well, but it still looks as though I am going to have to wait a while for a lifer in the form of a Purple Sandpiper to appear. Apparently the Mudeford Spit is a great place to see them, however as of yet I am still yet to prove this. Above: Oystercatcher Above: Turnstone I then headed up through the Woodland towards Wick finding 2 Chiffchaff, 4 Firecrest, and 10 Goldcrest. An Adult Med Gull and a pair of Sandwich Tern were also a nice addition to the day tally. I then headed through Wick finding yet another colour ringed Mute Swan. As well as seeing the Male Marsh Harrier, 8 more Chiffchaff, 3 Reed Bunting and the rather fluky discovery of a female Bullfinch as it erupted from a bush just off to the left hand side of the entrance gate as I opened it. All in all another decent day spent on the headland. Above: Mute Swan S2U November 7th - RSPB Rainham Marshes Reading week saw me head back to London for a few days of relaxation and also it gave me a chance to see my family, friends, Arsenal, and also visit my patches. A rather hit and miss day in terms of weather was what greeted me at Rainham. However it was nowhere near as bad as it had been forecast to be.... yet! My customary river watch first thing lead to me watching an almost empty river bar the odd few Black-headed Gulls that drifted up the river which given the wind direction was all too frustrating. A few Curlew were about along the sea wall and as I eventually reached the visitor centre a quick scan of the reserve saw me get onto not one, but two Short-eared Owls tussling with a pair of Marsh Harriers over the numbers. This was a great sight to be hold as the owls would gain height before folding their wings and stooping down onto the Marsh Harriers, before the Marsh Harriers would do something similar. Eventually after about five minutes of this oddly graceful duel the Short-eared Owls disappeared presumably having lost leaving the Marsh Harriers to hunt over the marsh sending Ducks and waders up in all directions. All this time a Male Stonechat had joined me on the sea wall and was happily catching insects from the bush next to me. Above: Short-eared Owl along with a photo bombing Goose Below: Male Stonechat I then went in to the visitor centre and joined the Wednesday walkers. We decided to head out to along the sea wall to see if we could see the Short-eared Owls however the wind had picked up a lot in the 10 minutes that we spent inside and thus the Owls were nowhere to see. We did however have a few Avocet in the bay and 2 more Male Stonechats near the Dragonfly pools. A good plethora of Ducks was to be had from the Ken Barret hide as well as a couple of Marsh Harriers. A few Snipe were also around, including a pair which seemed to be displaying to each other. On to the Ken Barret Hide and here a Grey Wagtail showed extremely well alongside the Teal, Snipe and also a Ruff. I have to admit that I thought that the Grey Wagtail hadn't left and when I got up to shut the window of the hide it flew out from right up against the building. Above: Drake Teal Above: Pied Wagtail Below: Grey Wagtail Above: Ruff The day wasn't finished yet with a Goldcrest in the woodland my first here for a while. The weather then started to take a turn for the worst and so we all retreated to the visitor centre. After lunch a joined some of the others on the balcony sheltering from the wind and rain and watching the river for any goodies that might be on offer. At around 2pm a monstrous squall came through and I have literally never seen anything like it in my entire life as all of a sudden birds started to appear everywhere coming in off the Thames for shelter. This included a swirling flock of around 280 Dunlin which came in off the Thames and gave us a run for our money trying to ID them as the light and general visibility were atrocious. After the rain lessened birds started to come of the reserve and head back out onto the Thames Lapwing streamed off the reserve, before a shout from Howard in the visitor centre sent us running. We all stopped and stared in awe as the whole horizon was covered in one long line of Black-tailed Godwits. There must have been almost 700 birds or possibly even nudging 1k. The whole line of the sea wall between the tip and the visitor centre had the Godwits crossing so that's about a miles worth of Godwits heading off the reserve. These birds must have been migrating over the land when this squall occurred as I only saw 1 bird on the reserve which was from the Ken Barret Hide. It was quite something to see and to be honest they looked shattered as they dropped onto the mud on the opposite side of the Thames for a rest and some food. The mud literally turned black there were so many waders. What a sight and it wasn't done yet as a steady trickle of around 40 Curlew flew off the reserve followed by the Avocet and also a flock of 17 Golden Plover which were an excellent addition to the day tally. Since there was a small gap in the rain I decided to head to the station and catch the train back home. November 10th - Totteridge Valley Well to say that the Owl evening went to plan would be a lie. Those who joined me for the pre walk enjoyed the best of the weather it has to be said as for the vast majority of it we were dry. A Bullfinch and the odd Mandarin Duck and Teal were the main highlights as well as a Firecrest which was heard, but couldn't be located amongst the Goldcrest at Darlands. The weather deteriorated quickly and I could tell that this was going to be a horrid one. We headed up to the Orange Tree where a quick rest bite from the rain was gratefully appreciated as was the Hot Chocolate that I had. Those that had joined me and got soaked had left by the time the others had arrived for the main walk and to be honest I was already too wet to care so I headed back out with the newly arrived and before too long we were soaked again. We headed straight down towards Darlands Lake where an almighty flock of 25 Mandarin Ducks had gathered including 17 Stunning Drakes. Teal numbers had also increased with 8 birds now on the water and 6 of them being Drakes. Just before we left the Mandarin Ducks headed into the trees at the back of the lake presumably ready for their roost. While we were there a Woodcock erupted from the trees at the back and flew across the lake quickly off in search of some grub. The only thing else of note was the fact that despite the weather at Folly Farm we did manage to hear a Little Owl which was someway of consolation, but I guess I shouldn't really be complaining as in this sort of weather we were lucky to see or hear anything. Finally at about 5pm we gave in and with the sound of Redwings heading over us to their roost we squelched back up to the orange tree and headed home. November 14th - Poole and Baiter Park Since the reading week trip I hadn't had a great deal of time to head out birding and thus I grabbed the chance to Head to Poole for the last few hours of daylight. I was somewhat surprised when I got there and saw a flock of Canada Geese and Oystercatchers feeding on the playing fields. It was an odd sight seeing the Oystercatchers running in and out of the boundary tape. Moving on and it was just more of the regulars for a while. This was useful as the main reason I had come out was to see if I could find any interesting Mute Swan colour rings as they are easy to read and also because I have also started to notice a small pattern to do with the location of the Swans every time I see them. Am I surprised, no not really but when you consider that they will move if the weather is harsh I might have to hope that a really bad spell of cold weather occurs if I am to find anything particularly unusual Mute Swan ring wise. Above: Mute Swan SLR Below: Mute Swan R5T Above: Black-headed Gull I continued down towards the Café and here I had 11 Little Grebe and the Drake Mandarin Duck. This particular Mandarin Duck is a big deal as they are quite rare in this area and I think it is the only one seen this year in the area. It was first seen on the 3rd by me and I presume it will stay the winter. Mandarin Ducks aren't actually native they were introduced possibly as early as the 1930s and have since then rapidly spread and increased in population to the current 2,300 pairs. The vast majority of this population does however occur in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Counties of England however they can occur pretty much country wide. Its interesting that in its native range birds tend to migrate south in the winter and there is some evidence to show there is some migration in the British Isles and so this bird in Poole park could be an example of this, however at the same time it could just as easily be another bird that has hopped the fence. Above: 1st Winter Mute Swans Below: Mandarin Ducks The 3 drake Goldeneye were still out in the middle of the lake. however with the light now starting to fade I decided that I should head over to Baiter to see what was about. Honestly there wasn't an awful lot a few Shag were mixed in with the Cormorants heading into roost offshore. An interesting duck flew past which could have been a Scoter, but the light was really poor as I was looking straight into the sun. Closer to the shore a Little Egret was parading around trying to get one last catch for the day and a few family parties of Brent Geese were resting on the water close in shore. As well as this a truly stunning sunset was had as it set over the Purbeck Hills in the distant turning the sky what I think was a deep shade of purply red, either way whatever colour it was, it was stunning. Above: Little Egret Above: The Brent Geese and the Black-headed Gull November 17th - Hengistbury Head Well today wasn't a complete disaster, but it wasn't the best since I decided that a Twitch was on offer. A Snow Bunting had been seen right at the end of the headland and it was showing well. I knew that with it being a Saturday it was unlikely that it would still be there when I got there. Sure enough despite a 2 hour search we couldn't relocate it. It was all bad though as I had a few good birds such as the 7 Red-breasted Mergansers which passed offshore. A few Common Scoter were also around and one flock also had a lone Teal with them which was a bit odd. Dunlin moved East as did a group of Black-tailed Godwits and a few adult Kittiwake. In the end I decided to have a quick look to see if there were any interesting waders, however the only thing of note were a few Oystercatcher, a Little Egret, and a few Turnstone in their usual place. Just as we started the walk back to the Bus a Water Pipit flew over calling which was a good patch and Dorset tick. Since the light was fading I wasn't surprised when we reached the woodland that birds had started to flock in for the night. 4 Brambling came in from high calling and dropped into Redpoll Wood. Also in this location the right hand side of the path was full of life with at least 20 Goldcrest in one mega flock. I managed to count 32 Goldcrest in total as well as a couple of Firecrest. That is some count and I am sure that it is something to do with the wood being the warmest and most sheltered place on the woodland for birds to spend the night. With the light fading I decided to call it a day and headed back to Bournemouth. And so this completes part one of my November round up. I will just quickly apologise for the sheer length of the blog post. And so in summary my patch list for Hengistbury Head is still ticking along nicely and I have had a few forgettable days and also a few unforgettable days, but that's just birding for you. The thing that keeps me going out and birding is the hope that I will have more of those unforgettable mesmerizing days, such as the Rainham Wader spectacular or the Ghost of Halloween from the last blog post.
Of course at the time of writing I know exactly what happens next in my birding tales and I am really excited to be moving on to writing the next couple of visits up. Stay tuned for them in the coming week! |
AuthorI have been a birder since I was 8 however only really started to be able to go out to places by myself in Summer 2016 (Blame the parents) My blogs will be from all over the place, but mainly from RSPB Rainham Marshes and Totteridge Valley! Photography done by Samuel Levy aged 18. ArchivesCategories |