Skua Hour

Portland Bill this morning. I was convinced it would be epic - southerly wind, rain on its way. And it was - epically barren. Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Linnet on the land. Gannet, Kittiwake, Fulmar, Razorbill, Guillemot, and Shag on the water. I retreated to the obs, and commented on the lack of birds.

"It's not Skua hour." The theory, as relayed to me by one of the regulars, is that the Skuas spend the night in the western approaches, and leave at dawn. this brings them past the bill between 8:45 and 9:45 am. Needless to say, the theory was met with mirth and derision from other regulars, who no doubt had heard it all before.

We stood around and watched. And watched. And chatted some more.

"Skua!" And there it was. A dark phase Arctic Skua steaming through close in. "And what's the time?" 9:15. Smack in the middle of Skua hour. QED.

Pishiobury Park Monday morning

Took the dogs for their daily constitutional round Pishiobury Park. The park has had a lot of work on it recently - am I a cynic to suspect budgets being spent up just prior to the financial year end?



The Park is wide open green space dotted with mature trees. There is a hedgerow through the middle, and some overgrown wooded areas round the fringes. Birds are much as you'd expect - ie not very many. But there are open views so occasional birds do fly over, including a couple of Wigeon during the December freeze up and a Ring-Necked Parakeet earlier this year.

The Horse Chestnut trees are coming into leaf. These trees nationally seem to be under a rage attacks from a variety of sources, There are a number of excellent specimens, so fingers crossed they survive the current onslaught of "all Horse Chestnuts must die" disease.



Today there was a distant Common Buzzard, singing ChiffChaffs and Blackcaps, and the usual Great Tit and Blue Tit. Some day soon I'll do a proper survey and count to provide a baseline population.

Mrs D and I spent a few moments sat on another new installation - a seat specially designed for those members of the local population who are over seven foot tall. We clambered up and sat there swinging our legs. Money well spent.

local round up

The pond at Lower Sheering is fuller than its ever been. Today it was host to a pair of Shoveler, a pair of Gadwall, and a few Teal. Recently its held a male Pintail, had a female Wigeon for a day, and a pair of Shelduck were reported from there too.

The Park held four Common Buzzards again, and plentiful singing Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps. There were several Brimstone butterflies on the wing ("Cabbage Yellows" according to Mrs D), and a Comma and a Peacock butterfly.

There are still small flocks of Yellowhammer, Chaffinch, and Fieldfare around, but the Siskins that were here in number early in the winter have all departed.

The High ground held 35 Golden Plover this evening, looking spectacular in summer plumage as they wheeled over the field. Previously this flock was up to 250 birds, and a male Wheatear was here last weekend too

... and I've moved.

not far. About half a mile to the southern edge of the village. Within 90 seconds (and yes I have measured it) I can be in an overgrown field watching Linnets and Reed Buntings, and listening to Goldfinches and Greenfinches. And the cars on the motorway. And the train. And the jet aircraft going into Stansted. But nowhere's perfect.

It means I have a new local patch- Pishiobury Park, and the flooded field at Lower Sheering is a short walk away. So its a chance for some new lists. There;s a few obvious ones:
- Birds seen in the garden.
- Birds seen from the garden.
- Birds seen walking from the house.
- Birds seen in Pishiobury Park.

I acquired another list I hadn't expected. Birds seen in my old garden which I never saw in the twelve years I lived there. Currently it has one species on it; Waxwing, preditably enough. 17 seen back in January.

You say goodbye, I say hello

Some free time! My contract with a Canadian Financial Institution has finished. A great group of people to work with, and some absorbing work. But not a lot of time left for birding, as you probably noticed.

But now I have a break, and it couldn't have happened at a more appropriate time. I finished last Friday, and immediately the clocks go forward, the sun shines, and the Chiff-Chaffs are everywhere singing-in the spring migration!

So for a few weeks at least, some postings of migration in East Herts, and occasionally Dorset ...

Terns

lunchtime today, strolling by the Thames, when a small flurry of avian snowflakes appeared whirling over the river. A flock of Terns, tumbling and swooping around and under London Bridge. I counted 18 in total, a mix of adults and juveniles. I'd guess Arctic Terns, mainly because that's what I'd like them to have been.

Incoming

To Hanningfield Res today to get a few September goodies.

Late arrival due to infuriating Sunday Driving, so I dashed round to the Oak Hide. I was soon admiring 3 Black Terns, an imm Little Gull, a Greenshank, a juv Knot,and a couple of Common Sandpipers.

The point hide has similar but there was a Herring Gull sat down ...


... that morphed into an adult Yellow-Legged Gull when it stood up.



I was about to leave, when I gave the far shore another scan for the Buzzards and Hobby that had been reported earlier. They were absent, but there was this ...



... that on close inspection turned out to be this.



I spent the next half-hour watching this Osprey diving into the water in frustrated attempts to catch a fish.

I was just one annoying Sunday Driver away from missing it too, as I was overdue on my leaving time. I guess sometimes you just don't realise when someone's doing you a favour

Back to Weymouth

Bank holiday with the family and Dog.

Saturday I went to Ferrybridge in search of another mis-identified Little Stint.
Knot - 1 juv
Sandwich Tern 3
Barwit 2

lots of Ringed Plover, Dunlin, and Turnstone

Sunday D#2 had avoided going out all day so I persuaded him to go to Lodmoor:

Common Buzzard 1 put up:
Avocet 8 - first at Lodmoor for me.
Blackwit 4
Common Sandpiper 3
Yellow Wagtail 5 went South
lots of other common stuff.

Then Monday morning at the Nothe 2 Willow Warblers and a Wheatear. Sparrowhawk over the marina.

Radipole had a few Common Terns- spent time studying the juvs.

I dipped on Med Gulls - I think there's a few around, but mobile.

Alexander's Bands

On the way back from Weymouth D2 managed a photo of a rainbow. You can just make out the second rainbow with reversed colours and the slightly darker band between the two rainbows known as Alexander's bands.


honest

Dodgy ID's

Most of my birding I do by myself, so I’m constantly confronted by the limits of my own ID skills, particularly in Autumn when there’s a mix of plumages. I can’t seem to summon up the certainty of many other birders.

At the Common Tern colony at Lodmoor for instance, where there’s been Arctic Terns and a Roseate Tern recently, I was struggling. I’d only seen Roseate once before and had it pointed out to me in flight; would I be able to identify one sat in front of me without help?

The first visit drew a blank, just a mix of juvenile and adult plumages. On the second visit I found a juvenile with an all-black bill and an absence of the ginger shawl the juvenile Commons have, but otherwise apparently identical to the surrounding Commons. Was this the Arctic? Or perhaps the Roseate losing its summer plumage? I toured the reserve seeing little of interest and ended up at the bandstand looking over the tern colony again. All the terns went up and suddenly there, gleaming almost white, was the Roseate Tern. It settled on its own and was obviously different; easy to pick out with the naked eye; a black bill with a few splashes of red at the base, pale back and wings, bright red legs, and as I zoomed up was there even a splash of pink on the breast?

It seemed bored. All around were Common Terns engaged in a whirl of social interactions; squabbling juveniles, loafing adults, males offering fish to females, females refusing them because the female next door had been offered a bigger one. The Rosy seemed uncomfortable to be in such company, and eventually flew off. The wing-beats were faster than the Common Terns, so I should have no problems picking up a Rosy amongst Commons as they fly past the bill next spring.

The ID difficulties continued when I returned to work today. The Thames has a number of Black-headed Gulls on my patch by HMS Belfast, and they constantly deceive at this time of year. I’m forever spotting Little Gulls and Med Guls, but they always end up being bleached or moulting BHG’s. But today a Little Gull just wouldn’t turn into a BHG. The flying was consistently faster, and when it turned it seemed to flash some dark underwings. A clear-cut case one would think, but without binoculars it’s just so hard to be completely satisfied.

It seems I’m not the only one to have difficulty with ID’s. A Little Stint turned up at Lodmoor whilst we were in Weymouth. I decided not to go and drag the family round Lodmoor again, hence missing the opportunity to fail to spot that it was in fact this.

SWF

Dashed up to Hatfield Forest to see the Silver-Washed Fritillaries that are on the wing here in Lodge Coppice. There were a few records a couple of years ago that have mushroomed into people seeing ten plus butterflies.



I got a decent photo of a tatty male out of it, and if you were to look at my shot and some other folks visits then you might think the bushes of Lodge Coppice are festooned with SWF's sitting out in the sun waiting to be photographed. But they aren't. They were easy to see, but are strong fliers and seemed loath to settle. And I had the wrong lens - just a usual one, and my 100-300 mght have done the job better. Other butterflies - Peacock, Red Admiral, Brimstone, Ringlet, Gatekeeper, a blue, Meadow Brown, Large White, were out and some settled, but not so as I could get any decent shots.