August at Longham

29th August 2016

Had a early mornings walk well not that early only from 9.00am to 12.00pm, I am struggling to come up with anything new for the sight with only four new species seen for the year since the 17th June

(Unless you count the two model yachts and model boat plane I saw today on the lake and of course flying over) still Bullfinch and Common Tern have eluded me so far this year . Tried searching through the tufted ducks for anything unusual but most of them were a sleep or kept diving which was a bit frustrating. any way the best I could muster this morning was,

 

Gadwall – 2

Common Sandpiper – 4

Lapwing – 10

Swallow – 10

Great Crested grebe – 15

Little Grebe – 21

Reed Warbler – 2

Willow Warbler – 1

Chiffchaff – 1

plus the usual fare of coot, tufted duck, mallard, mute swan and gulls

 

27th August 2016

Had another trip this afternoon round the lakes, it seemed very quiet on the passerine front with just a Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff seen along with 3 Reed Warbler.

other birds seen are as follows

Mute Swan – 21

Mallard –5

Tufted Duck – 51

Coot – c100

Great Crested Grebe – 15

Little Grebe – 12

G B B Gull –1

L B B Gull – 3

Herring Gull – 60

Grey Heron – 2

Common Sandpiper – 2

Snipe – 1 first of the autumn I think for Longham ?

Lapwing - 1

Willow warbler – 1

Chiffchaff – 1

Grey Wagtail – 1

The water level is down to 13.5 metre on the water marker at the pump house approximately which is exposing some nice gravel round the islands.

as I was walking round the lake I began wonder why is it that Longham does not produce the high numbers of Green Sandpipers and no Little Ringed Plovers, Wood Sandpipers and such.

Is it do with flight paths taken on the migrator routes so the lakes are not on the flight path and to far in land? Also is there any that can be done to encourage Bournemouth water company to encourage these specie to drop in and use the place?

 

Phone scoped record shot

 

 

 26th August 2016

Had an interesting evening round Longham South Lake with 8 Common Sandpiper and 2 Kingfishers.

The Sandpipers gave a good aerial display round and round the small island at the top of South Lake giving a piping type whistle call as the went round.

It was nice to see that many flying together round the lake with there pulsing wing beats a calls.

And Gull which I think was a 2nd winter Greater Black backed Gull, it was much larger than the brown  juvenile and adult herring, also was a very bright white under tail coverts , neck, and head which look large with a long heavy bill with dark spot at the tip.

a bit of streaking on the chest and flanks. Upper parts looked black and white pattern.

 

very poor record shot of GBBGull

Poor record shot of GBB Gull showing size diffrence with Herring gull in the forground

 20th August 2016

Had walk round the south lake late morning early afternoon,

4 Swifts lots of Sand Martins and House Martins over the lake . notes of interest were 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Hobby over and a Pochard at the south end of the lake.

and a Tufted duck with 4 ducklings.

Poor phone scope Grey Heron

14th August 2016

A quick walk round the North Lake this afternoon the high lights were,

Willow Warbler – 4

Common Whitethroat – 2

Stonechat – 2

Sparrowhawk – 1

Great Crested Grebe – 7

1st Winter Herring Gulls

Various trips out and about

As I have not been very active on the blog recently I thought I should up date it with some various trips I have had out and about.
So the best place to start would be the 7th August were I went over to RSPB Arne to be part of HEN HARRIER day were we heard Birds of Poole Harbour's  Paul Morton, and others including Iolo Williams were they all talk very passionately about the plight of the harriers and the persecution they get on grouse moors.
At the end of the day I met and thanked Iolo for a great talk he gave and how inspiring it was to hear,
and came home with a very good book  called Catching the Bug .

Next trip out was on a walk with Birds of Poole Harbour up to Old Harry and Ballard down for the monthly walk. We had wonderful weather bright sunny but with a cool breeze on top of the cliffs.
on the way we had about 70 Linnets fly over which was quite an impressive sight.

 

Old Harry

 We stopped off at the top of the cliffs to take in views were we had a distance view of a Gannet, House Martins swooping about head height round the cliff face.

The Stack

View of Pool Harbour

View across to Studland

At the end of a wonderful day we had spotted Common Whitethroats, Spotted Flycatcher, and a new bird for the year with Lesser Whitethroats and a scatting of Blackcaps and some lovely Willow Warblers and Chiffchaff.

In between these time I had a few evenings walks round Longham lakes but not much to report on with just the usual stuff on on the lakes. But on the 14th August I went round the north lake in the afternoon with my son and added another bird to the patch list with Willow Warbler 4 of them along the hedge by the visitors hut. And today 20th we had a walk round south with not much change expect for a little build up of little grebes with 10 spotted, a Pochard 2 Common Sandpipers and a Hobby over the lake mostly likely after the many House Martins and Sand Martins that were hawking over the lake along with 4 Swift.

The Lytchett Patch as been very interesting as I have been going down after work to try and find a Ruff and Little Stints that have been reported.

The evening of 14th August .

Went down to the view points again after tea this evening to see if I could find the pesky Ruff that keeps eluding me and guess what he was hiding again.

Though did have a nice hour or so searching the fields.

Snipe – 10 on Sherford pools

Common Sandpiper – 3 SP

Green Sandpiper – 2 SP

Lapwing – 22 SP

Little Egret – 21 FP

Lapwing – 40 FP

Dunlin – 15 FP

Ringed Plover – 1

Black –tailed Godwit – 7

Grey Heron – 1

17th August

Went down to the view points after work to try and catch up with the Little Stints and Ruff.

On the way I saw 1 Spotted Flycatcher in the lane and In the row of gorse in the approach field 1 Dartford Warbler a site first for me , which I was alerted to by a trrrt trrrt sound I had just recently listened to in Catching the Bug on CD1-16 at 1-1.5 seconds so I started to scan the gorse and there he was .

Out on Sherford Pools lots and lots of Black-tailed Godwit, possible 200 or more, I now know how a Peregrine can become confused with so many birds

I did not count them as I was searching for the Ruff, L Stints I did eventually find the Ruff but struggled to locate the other two birds.

Though I did have a good look and  through the many Dunlin c40 of them across the two view points, I came across a brute of a Dunlin he looked huge and very roundish

compared to the others . Also out on the mud with the tide rising were 10 Snipe, 10 Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpiper, Redshanks, Lapwings and a Greenshank, It was a same I had to leave at 19.50 hrs as the place was looking spectacular  with so many birds. And yes I finally located the Ruff.

19th August I head back down to Lytchett Fields as I had seen that some birds I have been wanting to since last year as I kept missing them and it would be a new lifer bird for me, but I did not expect to see what I did see.

It was great to have stunning views my first Curlew Sandpipers not 1 but 6 of them, a moulting adult and 5 juveniles on the large pool just before French’s view point, not bad for my first ever sighting of the species, followed by 2 Little Stint,  a Ruff, Ringed Plover, LRP, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper and lots of teal.

Some ropey record shots of the Curlew Sandpipers

Juvenile and Moulting adult

Four Curlew Sandpipers

And then there were Six

 Lycthett Field is an amazing place, early that day the 19th there was a report of a Wryneck sitting on the information board at Sherford Pools view Point amazing just wish I got to see that as that is another bird I would love to see.