Hard to Tricky Birds to See List

  Recently having to be confined to home since the weekend of the 10th January because of contracting  the Covid virus for the first time in the 6 years that various strains have been about. I say the first time as every time in the past when I've been ill and carried out a test they always resulted in a negative. Still feeling the effects of the virus as I write on the 15th January, my list as stalled on 65 birds seen since the 1st January and with some very good birds being reported around the county it is a bit annoying to have caught this nasty virus as I was hoping the I would of been on a minimum count of 80 to 100 birds by the end of the month!

Though I was given some good advice about doing a year list from a local birder via a forum.

That was "remember listing is a marathon and not a sprint race" and perhaps make a list of the hard and tricky species to see in the county by looking through past Dorset Bird Club Reports. This is exactly what I have down while stuck in the house going a bit barmy. Some on the following long list might not seem hard or tricky see for others, but for me I think they will be as I bet most will turn up while I will be stuck in a factory machining lumps of metal. 

The list, those in bold will be lifers and I am sure there could be more add.

Whooper Swan

Garganey

Green winged Teal ? But if I see teal is the already seen as now lumped together.

Red crested Pochard

Ring-necked Duck

Scaup, Lesser Scaup

Eider

Surf Scoter

Velvet Scoter

Long tailed Duck

Turtle Dove

Red necked Grebe

Jack Snipe

Woodcock

Grey Phalarope

Wood Sandpiper

Spotted Redshank; yes Lytchett bay/fields and Middlebere are good reliable sites for this species. This year I would like to see one in the breeding plumage or partial plumage as the d turn up at these places .

Curlew Sandpiper

Temminck's stint

Purple Sandpiper

Little Stint

Pectoral Sandpiper

Black Tern

Forster's Tern; this bird as given me the run around in the past

White winged Black tern

Roseate Tern

Little Gull

Sabine's Gull

Caspian Gull

Skua - all types  only seen 1 great skua

Puffin

Red throated Diver

Black throated Diver

Petrels ?

Shearwaters - all type other than Manx's and Balearic

Bittern 

Purple Heron

Honey Buzzard

Goshawk

Owls - all five Long eared Owl

Hoopoe

Bee- Eater

Wryneck

Lesser spotted Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker; only because they are becoming hard to see at certain locations

Parakeet; only one left I think

Golden Oriole

Shrikes - all types

Waxwing

Wood Warbler

Yellow browed Warbler

Palla's Warbler

Raddie's Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler

Ring Ouzel

Nightingale

Fly Catchers - all types

Redstarts

Pipits other than Meadow Pipits

Brambling

Hawfinch

Redpoll

Crossbill

Lapland Bunting

Snow Bunting

Cirl Bunting

Ortolan Bunting

WOLF MOON MERLIN MAGIC

 On a very cold afternoon I went to a secrete heathland with a fellow bird Chris Hilder to hopefully catch up with a Merlin and perhaps a Hen Harrier 

While waiting around for one of these birds to make an appearance, I added another 4 birds to my list with Kestrel, Fieldfare, Dartford Warbler and Linnet.

Archive picture of a hovering kestrel

  While waiting and freezing my toes standing in one place the new years Wolf moon started to rise above the tree line. Just like a Star Wars Death Star. It was a spectacle moon .

Death Star Moon Rising

a very bright Wolf Moon

Just before the rising of the moon three snipe left the heath and flew over head and headed north west.

Even though it was a very cold afternoon/evening it was still enjoyable to watch Fieldfare and a flock of c50 Redwing.

Though the magic of the watch was when a Merlin came dashing in which I thought was a female/ 1st/w type bird followed by a male bird and then another male came in and three birds were perched up in the same dead tree. While these were resting up and female type bird came bombing in and speeding round the heath before settling down. Give both me and Chris 4 beautiful Merlin in one scope view pure magic to a very cold watch. Though even though we were getting chilly I did wonder how cold the Microlight flyer that went over was and where  he/she was heading.

Two of the eventual four Merlin

Perhaps a very cold Microlight flyer

Well the list is going slowly but I have enjoyed what I've seen so far and only on 56 birds so far still a long way to go. I think I am not sure whether to update when the next bird trip ( which is likely to be tomorrow) take place or at the end of month with and update of the bird list and places visited?

THE DORSET YEAR LIST BEGINS

 I was up before sunrise breakfast eaten and flask of tea and sandwich made and I was all set for a day of birding in my home county of Dorset.

I made up my mind the first stop was going to be at the Saxon Roundabout Wareham for the Glossy Ibis. 

Though on arriving there was no sign of them in the field, so I jumped back into the car and headed off to Ridge with the hope that the Russian White fronted Geese would be in the field along the Arne road. I was in luck as in the field there were Canada Geese and 37 wonderful Russian White fronted Geese.

Russian White fronted Goose

After this brief stop I made my way to Studland via cutting through Heartland Moore. This was an interesting drive. As along the narrow road I had deer jumping out in front of me Roe Deer by the cattle grid as you come down the hill of Slepe and Sika Deer as driving up to Scotland Farm and beyond.

Parking on Ferry Road near the gate for Red Horn Quay I made way down to the watch point. Hoping that yesterdays couple of Smew were still about, but talking to some the guys already there an scanning Brand's bay and the area off Goat Horn it was evident  that they were no longer here. So glad I went on the 31st December as they were lifers for me and the drake is a real smart bird. I suppose  I can take that as a first lesson in big year birding, that one must go and see the birds when news breaks if it is possible as they just might not be there the next day or gone within hours! Though it was good to get Slavonian Grebe and Great Northern Diver which were fairly close to Red Horn Quay.

Slavonian Grebe

Great Northern Diver

While waiting to see if the Smew was going to turn up one of the birders found a White tailed Eagle sat in a tree on the far side of Brand's bay. So I made an attempt to phone scope the bird, which did not come out that well most likely due to the distance and the wind.

 This  brown blob is the White tailed Eagle

Having meet with a couple of local birders, who  gave me directions for another place to see the Glossy Ibis and Tundra Bean Goose. I decided to go and see if I could find them at these places. Unfortunately the Ibis were still not happening for me as I could not see them at the location.

So with the location of the Bean Goose at Winterbourne Monkton I set off in that direction. 

I knew my way to the roundabout near Dorchester were you turn off for Weymouth, but from there I was very unsure. As I made my way along the Weymouth relief road I spotted the sign for Winterbourne Monkton and turned right. Due to my map reading skills being well lets just say rubbish to be polite. I drove along this road and past the geese unknowingly and ended up on a road called Church Street and some village. So I pulled off the road into a layby with a bridge in front of me and a sign saying to Batcoombe straight ahead and all other routes right. The road going over the bridge I thought might be the relief road but as I felt I was completely lost. I sent an SOS message out on the local Whatapps Group asking for assistance for location of the geese. Within minutes I had a call and several pin drops of the location. So I drive ahead turned right and was back on the relief road and heading back towards Dorchester. Then on my left the sign for Winterbourne Monkton appeared so I turned off and was back on the road I had driven along. So driving slowly I came across a car pulled in off the road and someone along the hedge line with a scope. So with the help of the local net work ( Whatsapp Group) I managed to find the 7 Tundra Bean Geese. I would like just like to  say THANK EVERYONE for the assistance in helping me locate these geese for my year list.

 Tundra Bean Goose

 

After this is it was now late afternoon and I promised the wife I would be home round teatime and I wanted to finish the day at my local patch Longham Lakes. So I set off in that direction and arriving at the Patch at 2pm which gave me two hours to walk round. There was not a great real difference in the birds from a few weeks past. So it was just a case of scanning the Tufted Duck for a lurking Scaup or Ringed necked Duck but no such luck. The best bird was the long staying Black necked Grebe.

So I called it a day with only 49 species seen I should of made more of the birds i saw hoping along the hedges but thought most likely Blue/Great Tits and though I can tick those off anytime.

The long staying Longham Lakes Black necked Grebe