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.

End of the Month at Longham Lake

After getting my hair cut and sorting out the new TV I made my way over to Longham Lake for the last trip of the month just to see what was about and hopefully had an extra bird or two to the list.
Unfortunately this was not to be as there seems little about which as been the case for most of my visits this month with only the two new birds spotted in the month Hobby and Sedge Warbler.
Though on my previous visit I did have new site species for me with a lovely Grass Snake swimming along by the rock at the pump house.
Think one on the problems might be for waders dropping in is the high water level at present which is not leaving any shore line  exposed round the islands for them to settle and disturbance round the lakes so perhaps if any have dropped in the early hours they wound of pushed on by the time I get there in the afternoon, I must try and get there early one day.
The best of the best I saw to day were.

Common Sandpiper - 2
Lapwing - 18 out in the field
Little Grebe - 5
Swift - 1 which surprised me
Swallow - 6
House - Martin - 5
Green Woodpecker - 3 one adult two Juveniles

At the end of this month my species count is at 85 and a point score of 91 for the Patch Work Challenge.

Pushing my Luck

Went down to the view point this afternoon from work, did not get there until 14.50 hrs traffic a nightmare trying to get off Ferndown industrial estate, then getting home to pick up the gear told the wife I would be back for tea.

Annoyingly I had to leave at 16.30 hrs as it was going to push it to get home for the promised time, just as the Sherford view was starting to look good. Had a nice time though going through the birds plenty of Redshanks and Lapwings

tried counting the Redshanks but gave up as a flock of Black-tailed Godwits came in a settled so counted these instead, though I did get to 32 for the Red shanks.

I need to get a much better scope ( roll on November) as I came a cross a bird that at first I thought was a Juvenile Wood Sandpiper then I though it was a Juvenile Redshank but I am still wondering whether it was a Wood Sand, as it looked like it had yellowish green legs but only a hint of a supercilium and what looked like brown spotted/mottled upper parts though the view was not great it also looked different from the many Redshank,( or have I got some kind of autumn migration madness setting in )  but I never saw it bob its rear end upper and down like the common/Green Sandpipers do so going to have to put this one down as maybe or maybe not.

Any way to the birds I did see and hear.

 

Chiffchaff

House Martin – 4

Buzzard

Lapwings

Redshanks got up to 32 before stopping

Black-tailed Godwits- 86

Dunlin – 7 in summer or partial Summer plumage

Common Sandpiper – 4

Greenshank – 2

Canada Geese – 6

Little Egret – 8

Little Ringed Plover – 1

Shelduck - 2

Reed Bunting - 1

And yes I was a little late for the required time I said I would be home but when you have a possible Wood Sandpiper it was worth the hassle

__._,_.___

Lytchett Fields 16th July 2016

Spent late morning early afternoon (11.00 – 14.50 Hrs) down at the fields looking for the Knots could not locate them but did watch some interesting birds.

At 11.50/55 a Marsh Harrier came across the fields putting everything up in the air had a good view as it glided up above me and in to the the bright blue sky it looked like a very scruffy female?

Secondaries and inner primaries a very pale bluish grey in the reflected light with dark out primaries, and a mixture of brown and off white in the mantle , lesser coverts bleeding in to the median covert area and pale coloured tail, what struck me was how light the secondaries and inner primaries were as it climbed higher and higher it was like I could almost see through them with light on them and how ragged the end of the tail and secondaries look making think it looked scruffy, still a very nice sight watched until lost at 12.00pm.

Also some highlights of the day.

Black- tailed Godwit – 21

Lapwing – 22

Common Sandpiper – 1

Little Ringed Plover - final count of 3

Greenshank – 1

Dunlin – 2 in summer plumage

Redshank – 10

Collard Dove – 2

Curlew – 35 out in the bay viewed from the black pipe

Whimbrel – 1 same as above

Stock Dove – 1

Little Egret – 15

Moorhen – 2 plus one well grown juvenile

Juvenile Black- headed Gull – 1

plus several red Admirals 

 

Red Admiral

 

 

Longham Lakes July 15th 2016

Dropped in to Longham after work, seemed very quiet, though Swifts ,Swallows and Sand Martins were about did not see any house martins though I expect they were there,

The high lights of the walk are as follows. Sedge Warbler phew thought I was never going to tick this one off for the PWC this year, now just need to find one at Lytchett, 3 Common Sandpipers, 13 Lapwing, a Grey Wagtail and my first sighting this year of a brood of 4 Tufted ducklings 

Searching the gulls I came across a gull that I am not sure about I think it is a Lesser Black-backed but what is getting confussed is the bill as the very tip looked like it had been dipped in black ink

Any one read the blog as any idea of the species please let me know. I find gull interesting but very complexed.

Gull IID needed

Record shot of Tufted Duck female

The record shot above of the Tufted duck got be a bit excited as I did wonder whether it was a young Greater Scuap as I could not find any tuft on the back of the head and it seem vermiculated along the flanks and had some dirty white round the base of the bill, and a round head but no pale check spot so must be a female Tufty. It's good to have bird like this as it makes you look more closely so when one does turn up I will have a better chance of getting the ID right.

 As of  9th July my Dorset year list is up to 148 species  I am not usual this far head with my list,  2013 = 105, 2014 = 151, 2015 = 152. Is it possible to get another 52 by the end of December? I suppose it is all down to what I have seen so far and what will turn up. This year so far as been great and very enjoyable doing the patch work challenge which as helped .

 

Sedge Warbler - 85th Species for the site

Roosting Nightjar & Lytchett Fields

This morning 9yh July I headed over to the cafe at RSPB Arne to catch up with a Nightjar that as been roosting in a large oak tree in the cafe garden for the past 7-10 days. There can not be many places were you can grab a coffee and watch a nightjar.
The bird is very well camourflaged and hard to find but with plenty of people about and BirdsofPoolHarbour there it was easy to find with being pointed in the right direction.
My thanks to Paul Morton of BirdsofPooleHarbour for using is scope to get the top picture with my phone.

Nightjar taken through a Kowa scope with a Galaxy j5 phone

Nightjar taken through a Celestron scope with a Galaxy j5 phone

This is a male bird which you can tell by the white under tail tips and white wing flashes when it moves. It is most likely a failed breeder and as been pushed out of the heath and on to the hedge area. It as now been roosting in the large oak tree of the RSPB Arne cafe for around 7-10 days now.

After watching the now famous Nightjar form he terrace of the Arne cafe I made my way to Lytchett Fields with hope of catching up with some new birds.

This place never disappoints me out of Sherford Pools there were 270 Black-tailed Godwits some in very wonderful breeding plumage they looked stunning.

I scanned this field thoroughly but could not find anything new so switched to French’s view point and started scanning the field held a few Shelduck, 14 Lapwing

one singing Reed Warbler. Then I notice a small bird scurry across the mud, I get the scope on it and there is not one but two plover now at a distance, young little ringed plovers,

though at first I was a bit confused with them. As they were very pale brown almost beige like, struggled to find any yellow orbital ring, as I said the upper parts with very pale brown/beige colour a white collar at the back of the head nap area and the head was the same colour, but had a black smudge round the eye, had a thin black bill with a tiny white patch above the bill/on the forehead area.

under parts were white and had dark/black legs which I put down to being covered in mud? They ran quickly a bit like sanderling and stopped picked and the ground then ran some more.

So when I got home I looked through my books and came to the conclusion they were juvenile Little Ringed Plovers, but the dark legs did throw me off a bit.

 

On the way back up Slough lane I came across a grey wagtail feeding on the flies in the large puddle by the over hanging scrub willow.

These two birds bring my species list for the site up to 103 and a point score for the patch work challenge to 121, roll on the autumn.

One of the many summer plumage Black-tailed Godwits