Although this is a bit belated I thought I would write up my trip to Brownsea Island back at the beginning of August. It was a trip with much frustration! Waiting for the ferry is always a nervous occasion at Sandbanks especially if you know better things are on the horizon. My Granny and Grandpa were down with my dad and I on this trip. Surprisingly I even managed to get my brother to come with as well. Whilst waiting for the ferry, Black headed Gulls were around and so too were at least 17 Cormorants. The weather was much better than anticipated and therefore not wearing shorts was the worst decision of the day by far. Herring Gulls also made their presence aware. As I looked towards the mouth of the harbour I could see a flock of at least 50 small waders off towards Studland and my best guess as to what they could be is Dunlin. Above: Cormorant Above: Cormorants and Herring Gulls When we arrived on the island we could hear a mass of noise coming off the lagoon and I had a good idea of what was about. I did however decide to wait till I was in the hides to get a better view. Goldfinch were ever present around the visitor centre with quite a decently large flock around. Below: Goldfinch We then headed to the nature reserve and whilst on our way in we had 3 Whimbrel fly over along with a steady trickle of House Martins and Swallows. When we reached the wooded area just past the Visitor centre we reach a mixed Warbler flock. I have to admit that the 20 Chiffchaff and 20 Willow Warbler that I have put down as seeing is very conservative as there were probably more than 80 birds in the flock in total. There was also a Nuthatch seemingly a bit out of place in the flock alongside 2 Blue Tits. Next we went to the furthest hide. Here we looked for a while to see if we could find the Nightjar that we had here last year, but with no luck we had to settle for 4 Tufted Duck and a yaffling Green Woodpecker. By the time we had reached the visitor centre again the feeders had been filled up and therefore underneath there was a carpet of Chaffinches clearing up the mess that had been left behind by the Great Tits and Blue Tits using the feeders. We then headed up to where we had the Kingfisher last year, however again frustratingly it wasn't here. It took me a little while to actually find anything until out of nowhere a Chiffchaff appeared in the reed bed to the left of the viewing screen calling loudly. It carried on feeding as I had a scan of the rushes and reeds around me. Eventually I found a Grey Heron sitting behind some trees. The occasional duck did fly up from the undergrowth, but I wasn't quick enough to put an ID to them. Above: Well hidden Grey Heron. (Trust me it wasn't any easier to see in the field than online...!) We then headed to the main hide to see what we could see. As soon as we had sat down in the hide a calling flash of blue flew straight past the window very close in for all to see and then continued round in front of the other hide to my right. It was then joined by a second calling flash of blue and my brother believes there might have even been a third! Yep that's right they were Kingfishers! This was one of the best views I have ever had of these species and I can still remember it just zooming past the hide looking meaningfully ahead with so much elegance and poise. This probably doesn't beat the one that I had hovering outside the Butt's hide at Rainham last year, but it was still awesome to see none the less. Black Headed Gulls still had youngsters out on the rafts as did Common Terns. The Sandwich Terns were still around in decent numbers, but 'most' of the adults seemed to have moved on already with mainly juveniles remaining. Redshanks put on a performance in front of the hide with very decent views. Similarly the Pied Wagtails also gave us some nice views. Oystercatchers had gathered on the far bank with 337 roosting there alongside 70 Cormorant and 5 Little Egret! There was also a flock of around 300 Black-tailed Godwits to the right hand side of the hide along with some assorted goodies. I decided to wait and get a bit closer before sifting through the flock. Above: Pied Wagtail Below: Black Headed Gull Above: Juv Black Headed Gull Next 2: Juv Black Headed Gull and parent Above: Common Tern Below: Juv Sandwich Tern Above: Common Tern Above and Below: Cormorants and Oystercatchers, with the odd Shelduck, and also Black Headed Gulls Above and Below: the assorted wader flock Next 3: Redshank I probably should have mentioned at the start that this was going to be a rather photo heavy blog and this is why I can remember so much, I guess. What I also haven't mentioned so far is the fact that whilst in the hide my Granny, Grandpa, Dad, and Brother had all left the hide. I was left with some other birders as we were frantically searching for the Boneparte's Gull that was on the lagoon. As my luck would have it we couldn't find it and it would be the only day of that particular week that it wouldn't be seen, because bright and early the next morning the report was out that it was back. Another dip for this species in the UK and again pegging back my life list. Once I had given up, and rightly so, I moved onto the next hide to get a better view of the waders. I managed to pick up; 300 Black-tailed Godwits, 5 Avocet, a Greenshank, a Common Sandpiper, 8 Spotted Redshank, a Knot, and 3 Dunlin. Not bad, but not the Little Stint I was after. Gadwall were also around in front of this hide. Above: I think one is a Black Headed Gull and one a Common Tern. Also a Pied Wagtail Below: Common Terns Above: Common Terns Below: Sandwich Tern Above: Common Tern Below: Greenshank and Oystercatchers Above and Below: Avocets, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshanks, Black Headed Gulls Above: Greenshank, Avocet, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, BHG Below: Pied Wagtail Above: Common Tern and Redshank Below: Greenshank and Redshank Above: Dunlin, Redshank and Spotted Redshank I think...? Below: Common Terns Above: Common Tern Below: Spot the Sandwich Tern Above and Below: Black-tailed Godwit Above Green and Red Shank Looking at small dots on a screen has started to get to me and I have to admit I am not too sure that I have labelled them appropriately. I then left the hide pretty satisfied for a change and as I did so I got the shock of my life as a Red Squirrel was sitting on the path ahead of me! This was the first one that I had ever seen and as I saw it my dad phoned me which was just great as by the time I managed to get my camera on it, it was half way up a tree! The rest of the visit went by with little reward and a lot of effort and at just after 2 we headed back onto the ferry to head for home and to avoid the storm. After this trip my life list hasn't changed however, since my last blog I have had a flock of 3 White Stork fly over my local patch the Totteridge Valley bringing my life list up to 182 species which is awesome and more than I could have expected. I hope to upload a few more blog posts before the end of this month (September), however with school now restarting my time out and about birding will unfortunately be limited. I will now leave you with a selection of photos from the rest of my visit! Above: Red Squirrel Next 2: Jackdaws Above: Common Tern
Below: Hornet Mimic Hoverfly (volucella zonaria)
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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 17. ArchivesCategories |