Had a great afternoon birding at Little Sea and Brand’s Bay
then back again to Little Sea on the way back to the car.
I started at Little Sea to look for the GWE but he was not
there so after counting the Little Egrets that were roosting in some dead trees
I moved off to Brand’s Bay Hide.
At Little Sea
Little Egrets – 10
Grey Heron – 1
Cormorants – 5
Great Black-backed Gull -2
Over at the hide I got myself settled and started scanning
the many Little Egrets that were about for the GWE. Then over at the back of
the bay to the left a little I spotted what I thought was the bird in a creek
(there was a large gorse bush left of the creek and what looked like what was
left of a rotten boat) So I watched the bird and sure enough I saw its
yellowish/orange bill then it flew a bit closer to the middle island/ marshy
grass area were the Little Egrets were and this really confirmed that it was
the GWE.
At this point someone in a canoe paddle past the hide and up
the creek to the left, I tried to get on to Yahoo but was not getting a very
good signal then the canoeist came back down the creek but a lot closer to this
Island/ marshy grass area the bird flew off to the back of the bay near some
dead trees and what looked like some brown reed/rush. At this point because I
was struggling with a signal I went out the hide and texted Paul to see if he would
put the news out on O&A, but on
going back in to the hide the bird had disappeared.
So the birds seen from the Hide were
Little Egrets – 18
Great White Egret #
Great Crested Grebes - 20
Curlew
Black-tailed Godwits
Wigeon – 20+
Redshank- 2
Pintail -2
Hen Harrier- Ring tail #
Osprey
And best of all for me was watching the Hen Harrier quartering
the marsh and fields at the back of the bay. Then watching an Osprey flying
over the top of Goathorn Plantation with a fish in it talons and land in one of
the almost dead trees at back of the bay and tearing in to its super pure
magic.
But the magic was not over after all this I made the decision
to go back to Little Sea as I heard that the GWE was in the dead trees. And
sure enough it was there, though I am going to name this bird Houdini (if it
has not been already) as once again I texted Paul to let him know it was on
Little Sea at 16.00 hrs. But once again
the gulls and others birds took to the air though the GWE stayed put so I began
to look for what had put the bird ups and there it was a Osprey mostly likely
the one from Brand’s as it had very pale fringing to its mantle and coverts
just like the one I had seen earlier I watched plunge dive in to the lake and
it seemed ages before it reappeared and flew round the lake before land in a
dead tree and in this time the GWE disappeared again.
The GWE and the Hen Harrier put my Dorset list now up to a 136
The year list is up to 137 as I have seen one more in Hampshire I have not seen yet in Dorset and that is a Pochard
