Late on Saturday afternoon news broke of an immature Black Stork around Arne RSPB and Middlebeare, the bird was still present on Sunday morning but family commitments meant I had no chance to try and see the bird until the Sunday afternoon, by which time the bird had flown and was not relocated until Tuesday lunchtime when it was over Portland. Again I was unable to do anything about it and again the bird vanished until the early evening when it turned up at West Bexington.
So when I woke up this morning I kept a close eye on Twitter and the pager and as soon as news came out that the Black Stork had been relocated in a stubble field west of West Bexington village I set off for the coast. Forty minutes later I pulled off the road overlooking the village to scan the area, and there it was! Still in the stubble field I 'scoped the bird distantly from the road knowing it would be a real trudge from the car park in the village along Chesil Beach and up to the adjoining fields. As it happened I made the right decision as the Black Stork took to the air at around 8.40am and after circling a few times it drifted off and was lost to view just before 9.00am.
Now I just want to state that there are some great pictures of the bird taken at West Bexington this morning, but the following do not fall in to that category...these were phone-scoped about half a mile away as the red arrow shows on the bottom picture!
I had tried and failed to see Black Stork in the UK on a few occasions, so it was great to finally remove the species from my dip list and ink it on to my UK list.
A walk around Abbotsbury village afterwards produced at least four Painted Ladies, a couple of Commas and Red Admirals and a Hummingbird Hawk-moth.
More of the same today with a Little Egret on West Pool again and a single Common Sandpiper noted. A total of four Kingfishers were seen, I am pretty confident that they bred at the reservoir this year.
A quick visit and the flying ants that had been noted yesterday were again present today, only this time they had attracted a flock of twenty-two Common Terns, this is the highest single count I've ever had at the reservoir and contained at least three juvenile birds.
The third-summer Great Black-backed Gull was again noted today, and a Little Egret was on West Pool. The only other bird of note was a single Common Sandpiper.
Another quiet day, but a juvenile Mediterranean Gull was a decent sighting for the time of year.
The only thing to report today, a flock of twelve Mistle Thrushes passing over. An exceptional count for the reservoir.
I made an early morning visit to the reservoir today, knowing that it was bound to get a little busy as the day wore on with sailors, canoeists and anglers all due to take advantage of the forecasted good weather. A good look around the dam failed to produce that much though, with a couple of Little Egrets and a brace of Kingfishers being seen.
The trees around the Fishing Lodge hosted a bit of variety, with a couple of juvenile Linnets being the pick of the bunch, and an indication that there was successful breeding on the patch this year.
From the northern causeway I saw another Kingfisher, this one on West Pool and a third Little Egret was also notes as one flew over heading north. A single Common Sandpiper was to be the only wader seen today.
On then to the southern end of the reservoir where five Mandarin were seen and a Raven was atop one of the pylons. More encouraging news with the sighting of three juvenile Kestrels, so evidence of another species breeding on patch which I didn't know about.
Away from the birds there were a few butterflies on the wing, with Gatekeeper and Meadow Browns being the most obvious, though I also saw a few Small Skippers and a single Common Blue.
Finally, I noted a single Banded Demoiselle and loads of Common Blue Damselflies.
All in all a good morning out.
