Sutton Bingham - Fri 8 Jul

Another pretty uninspiring day weather wise but I did drag myself out of the house mid-afternoon and popped up to the reservoir for an hour where I bumped in to a fellow birder and Sutton Bingham patcher. My first stop was the northern causeway where a drake Tufted Duck was an unusual visitor for the time of year. Four Common Sandpipers were seen flying across the water from the Sailing Club before alighting on to the far bank.
I then drove on down to the southern end and sat by the hide for half an hour or so. On the exposed mud there was another Common Sandpiper and two Green Sandpipers, and a single Greenshank was also present. Three juvenile Mandarin were seen and were not at all phased as a Red Fox ran on to the mud and past them.The only other bird of note that I saw during my visit was a Kingfisher, a colourful end to a refreshing trip out.

Abbotsbury & Lodmoor RSPB - Thu 7 Jul

The first day of a four day weekend as I struggle to use up my annual leave entitlement before the end of July. After a relaxing start to the day I headed down to the coast as an adult Long-tailed Skua had been seen at Abbotsbury earlier in the morning. After a steady drive I pulled in to the beach car park and was about to fork out £3.50 to park when I saw Martin Cade, warden of Portland Bird Observatory, who told me to save my money as the bird had not been seen since early morning. So I turned round and drove towards Weymouth, stopping briefly to look over the Swannery. As I 'scoped the pool I saw my first Green Sandpiper of the year and a few Black-tailed Godwits, but little else.
After another quick drive I was in Weymouth and made straight for Lodmoor RSPB Reserve, parking on Beachdown Way before walking round the reserve. Almost the first birds I saw were a couple of Bearded Tits perched up in the reeds and as I continued my walk I saw three recently fledged Cetti's Warblers which looked ridiculously cure as they hoped along the top of a bramble bush before somewhat clumsily flying off.
Continuing on I stopped at the viewpoint ot look over the tern colony and in amongst the Common Terns I located one of the adult Roseate Terns that had been seen earlier in the day. Unfortunately it spent most of its time roosting or in flight so I was only able to get a couple of really dodgy record shots with my mobile.

I then completed the circular walk back to the car, the only other birds of note being a couple of Common Sandpipers, before driving home for lunch.

Trinity Hill - Tue 6 Jul

A very late start today as I headed out to a site near Axminster with some of the usual suspects for the evening. After being picked up at 8.30pm we drove off to Trinity Hill and took a walk out through the woodland to a nice clearing, and within seconds picked up our target bird as a male Nightjar was sat on a branch in full view...brilliant stuff!
Over the next hour or so we were treated to an aerial display of hawking Nightjars, with at least four different birds seen. We also witnessed one of the birds hovering, something I'd not seen before.
We could also hear at least one Tawny Owl calling and one bird actually gave a call behind us and as we spun round flew across the path.
On the walk back to the car we had to be careful to avoid a number of Toads that were hopping across the path.

All in all a good night out, but it was rather late by the time I got home!

Sutton Bingham - Sun 3 Jul

After watching the Wimbledon mens final Ellie and I popped up to Sutton Bingham for a brief walk before dinner. We parked up by the hide and walked along the water's edge as far as the canoe club and then back again.
Four Little Egrets were opposite the hide and at six Mandarin were present at the far end of the reservoir. A single Common Sandpiper was also seen, presumably a failed breeder heading back south and a Kestrel was also seen.
Another Little Egret was on West Pool but there was little else of note at the northern end of the reservoir.
There were lots of butterflies flitting around, but nothing different from those I had seen earlier in the day.

Alners Gorse - Sun 3 Jul

After a fairly relaxing start to the day I headed off to the other side of Sherborne and arrived at the Butterfly Conservation Reserve of Alner's Gorse at about 11.00am. It was a lovely hot and sunny morning and as a result there were butterflies everywhere. As I walked down to the track and on to the reserve proper I noticed a lot of Ringlets and Meadow Browns and flyng around in the shorter grass a number of Small Skippers and one or two Common Blues.
I then walked over to the hedge that runs along the western side of the reserve where there were half a dozen or so people watchign butterflies. After a chat I soon got on to the two species that they were watching, White-letter Hairstreak and Purple Hairstreak:

Whilst both were fairly high up in the trees they were occasionally coming a bit lower down and afforded some brilliant views. Both these hairstreaks were new butterfly species for me.
I then wandered to the northern fringe and around the clearings in the larger trees there were several Silver-washed Fritillaries. Walking back to the car I also saw several Marbled Whites and with Peacock, Red Admiral, Green-veined White and Large Skipper added to list it meant for a cracking couple of hours watching butterflies.

Canada Farm & Shapwick Heath - Sat 2 Jul

Although the bright sunny skies had become slightly overcast I took Ellie out for an hour or so just after lunch and we drove up on to the Somerset Levels. We parked at the entrance to the Canada Farm part of the Shapwick reserve and walked west along the track. There were loads of Ringlets around as well as a few Red Admirals and one or two Green-veined Whites and Meadow Browns. We also saw a couple of White Admirals whizzing around the top of a couple of oak trees. However, the experience was spoilt somewhat by some really big and mean mosquitoes! I got bitten twice and Ellie, despite wearing jeans and a long-sleeved top, also got attacked. As a result we walked back to the car and drove up the road to the main Shapwick Heath reserve entrance.
We spent half an hour or so on the reserve and had some cracking views of a Kingfisher and at least one Hobby passed overhead. There were loads more Ringlets on the wing and also my first Small Skipper of the year. As the day progressed it got warmer and more humid and we soon felt pretty exhausted, so taking this as a sign to call it a day we returned to the car and came on home.

Somerton - Sat 2 Jul

I was up and out of the door by 5.30am this morning, leaving Ellie sound asleep, and drove up to Somerton to try and add Quail to my year list on the fourth attempt! I had received an email from a fellow birder late on Thursday night giving me a few more details on the best place to hear the birds singing, and I as I parked by the dead tree he had mentioned and got out of the car I could hear at least two Quails singing away, with the distinctive "wet-my-lips" call carrying across the fields.
So mission accomplished and it wasn't even 6.00am yet! There were loads of birds around and it was a lovely morning. Yellowhammers seemed to be everywhere and a flock of about forty Goldfinches flew over. A small family party of Linnets were perched up in a hedgerow and a couple of Stock Doves flew over and after a productive session in the field I headed back home and hopped back in to bed with Ellie....!