Ham Wall RSPB - Wed 14 Jan

A flying visit to Sutton Bingham at lunchtime failed to produce anything other than sixty-four Wigeon off the dam and a fly-over Meadow Pipit so I headed up to Ham Wall RSPB reserve this afternoon.
A walk out to the second viewing point produced a few things of note. A single Great White Egret was showing pretty well from the "2nd VP" and three Marsh Harriers were also seen. A managed a couple of year ticks with a single Lesser Redpoll feeding in an alder tree and three Bullfinches showing well, if a bit flighty.
The expected wildfowl were present alongside a good number of Lapwing. A nice afternoon out despite grey skies and a bitter wind!

Sutton Bingham - Wed 7 Jan

A late afternoon visit to check out the gull roost was actually worth while today (a visit yesterday evening had failed to produce anything of note). Around five thousand gulls had gathered by the time I left when the light started to fail, and amongst the masses I located seventeen Mediterranean Gulls, sixteen adults and a first-winter. It is very possible that there were a couple more as due to the location of the roost tonight I could not check the entire flock.
The bulk of the gull roost consisted of Black-headed Gulls (c.2500) with a similar number of Herring Gulls. Thirty or so Common Gulls and half a dozen Lesser Black-backed Gulls made up the rest.
The only other bird of note tonight was a Mistle Thrush, whilst a flock of around 150 Linnets were present a couple of miles down the road between East and West Coker.

Weymouth & Portland - Sat 3 Jan

Today I managed a day out birding with Steve and Steve, two of my oldest friends and fellow birders. We had planned on stopping at a couple of sites on our way down to Weymouth, but heavy rain meant a slight change to the schedule and instead our first quality stop of the day was at Ferrybridge.
A quick stop produced five Pale-bellied Brent Geese amongst the flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese, but with nothing much else to be seen we drove round to Portland Castle for a while. Before too long I had managed to locate both the female Eider and the Black Guillemot, both of which had been around for a while. A single Great Northern Diver was also noted before we headed up to Portland Bill.
Parking at the Bird Observatory we walked down to the Bill, stopping at the "Obs Quarry" to pick up Little Owl. At the Bill we bumped in to friends from Reading who were day-tripping and after a quick catch up we set off to try and find a few bits and pieces. After a bit of a struggle we finally found five Purple Sandpipers on the rocks with a couple of Turnstones. The wind was blowing hard so this made sea-watching tricky, a few Gannets and Kittiwakes along with a movement of Razorbills and Guillemots was all we could manage.
Back to the car and a brief stop at Pennsylvania Castle woods where we added Blackcap and Chiffchaff to the list and then off Portland and in to Weymouth.
We made straight for the eastern end of the town and the walk up to Redcliff Point where a Richard's Pipit had been lingering. With very little effort we soon found the bird and were treated to some cracking views.

 

 

Whilst watching the Richard's Pipit we got a tip off about some Black Redstarts in Weymouth proper so back to the car and off again.
Parking near Nothe Fort we walked around to Newton's Cove and after a fair bit of searching found three Black Redstarts, whilst in the bay four Slavonian Grebes were seen. Time was starting to creep by, so off again and we headed to Langton Herring.
Arriving in the village we parked the car and walked out towards Rodden Hive, and a very smart male Marsh Harrier flew by as we trudged along. Reaching the water we were treated to a mass of birds, with large numbers of Coot, Wigeon, Teal, and Pintail plus a few waders, including a Greenshank. The fields behind held lots of Dark-bellied Brent Geese and forty Barnacle Geese, but despite searching we could not find the Greenland White-fronted Goose that had been seen on and off in the area.
Back to the car again and our final stop of the day was Abbotsbury, but the rain had returned making scanning The Fleet all but impossible, so we called it a day and came on home. All in all a great day out despite inclement weather and it was goof to catch up with some good friends.
UK list for 2015 now at 100 species.

Studland - Fri 2 Jan

A visit to Studland this afternoon, and I tried and failed to see any Ring-necked Parakeets today...seems to get harder every time I visit to see one of these green beauties. In fact there was very little of note that was land-based (I missed another Firecrest too), but the sea was very productive. Off the south beach I found a Red-necked Grebe which was an unexpected surprise, there were also six adult Mediterranean Gulls. I then moved on to middle beach where I saw two distant Black-necked Grebes and a flock of twelve Common Scoters. A little more scanning of the sea over the next hour or so produced a very smart Great Northern Diver and a Slavonian Grebe feeding close to the shore. This rounded off a most enjoyable day out!
UK list for 2015 now at 76 species.

Arne RSPB - Fri 2 Jan

Down to south Dorset today, and I started off at Arne RSPB reserve. A few of the common woodland birds were around the car park, but I failed in locating any Firecrests. I then walked out to Shipstal Point and scanned the water and soon located a female Goldeneye and a few Red-breasted Mergansers. Both Bar-tailed Godwit and Black-tailed Godwits were seen, the latter far more numerous, and a flock of Avocets were seen distantly in flight.
On the heath I was lucky enough to see a female Dartford Warbler before then finding two males, typically perched in the winter sun atop a gorse bush...though as soon as I got my scope out to get a picture they vanished!
The "usual" flock of Spoonbills were present, and numbered a massive thirty-one birds, my biggest ever flock in the UK. A few Pintail were amongst the Teal, Mallard and Wigeon.
All in all a good morning out before returning to the car for a quick sandwich.

Ham Wall RSPB - Thu 1 Jan

A trip up on to the Somerset Levels this afternoon and walk out to the second viewing platform at Ham Wall produced a few things, but considering it was less than a week since my last visit there were some glaring omissions! Two Great White Egrets were seen, one from each of the viewing platforms, and a small flock of Greylag Geese flew in to the area in front of the second viewing platform. The commoner wildfowl were present, though still not in massive numbers. A couple of Cetti's Warblers were heard, as were at least two Water Rail. I headed back to the car just as the hordes arrived to view the Starling murmuration!
UK list for 2015 now at 44 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 1 Jan

I only managed a quick thirty minute trip to the patch this morning, but I managed to see twenty-five species during this short visit. Nothing that out of the ordinary, just a pair of Wigeon and a drake Tufted Duck off the dam and a Kingfisher did a fly-past. Other than that, it was routine fair, but a steady start to this year's patch list.