How to Bowl a Maiden Over

 A summons to Dorchester for none Wildlifing reasons could not have been on a worse day weatherwise, and while the images may appear to show a fine front it was far from that!

YELLOWHAMMER
singular en-route did kick the morning off in fine form but from Monkey's Jump there was not a bird to be seen. Shifting down to

MAIDEN CASTLE
at first glance appeared to paint the same picture until a couple of

COMMON GULLs

appeared out of the ever increasing rain.

Apart from Black-headed Gulls not one of the hard won other species reached double figures with

LINNET

almost breaking the trend with a count of just 9

and

SKYLARK
checking in at c4.

It was a full hour before the first

GOLDEN PLOVER

put in an appearence

and then only c3.

However, there was a Bright Side to all of this as apart from the Black-heads

all othe specise mention were additions to the
Year List!

PS - how annoying then to find a report of 400 on the Dorset Bird Club Website the very next morning!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

 The first Senior Moment of the year happened as part of the recent New Year's Day Trilogy when we forgot to post the Mammals that were recorded on the day. IT certainly won't be the last!

RABBIT

ROE DEER

chewing the cud in the gloom while the

GREY SQUIRRELs
were concentrating hard on producing the 2021 vintage!
Having activated but a single Moth Trap none of the hoped for were secured but
Stranger in the Night

a well 'saddled'

EARTHWORM
was the very last thing we would have expected, how on earth (excuse the pun) do they get in?
It was left to gamebirds to kick the day off in Birdland as this female

PEASANT

trotted along the tennis court fence-line while also right outside our door the new arrival

GUINEAFOWL
paid what has now become a daily visit

having dubbed the one we have our eye on as
Sidney Poitier

and the others Paxo 1 - 2 and 3
otherwise all that could be found across the Southern Sector was a lone

MISTLE THRUSH 

along with this overlooked clump of

MISTLETOE

and just as an aside, Australia has a fabulous bird that survives soley on this usually posionous plant not surprisingly known as

MISTLETOEBIRD 

Up north while watching this pair of

 

TEAL
and once again finding no sign of the 3rd Little Grebe, in flew our first new addition to the 2021 List

KINGFISHED
which entertained for 5 minutes or so making for species number 53.

More

FLYTIPPING
along the Bridleway we ply everyday, for which it is thought the authorities know the culprit and would suggest

2 weeks in the Stocks at Tower Hill - wot say you?

but in all that time we have never noticed

APPLES
on this tree close to the Sewerage Works.
Reaching the gateway to the Heath another addition was spotted 

on the fenceline a

STONECHAT
followed within by the bird of the day a female

MERLIN
the image having been dragged from the archive, while concluding a decent wander with another

STONECHAT

New Years Day Twitch 2021 - Part III

 To continue with the final phase of the Twitch the news from the Gravle Pit remains bad as still no signs of the third

LITTLE GREBE

GOLDFINCH
along the bridleway was almost a foregone (don't count yer chickens) while at the
Sewerage Works it was almost a riot. Without any coaxing c2 male

FIRECREST

popped out of the hedgerow followed by a male

BULLFINCH
perching on the same briar, what a sight! They were followed by a

CHAFFINCH
that was considered very late in the day or overlooked? As if that were not enough from a single location a

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER
was druming from deep in the hedge, a distant and noisy

JAY
was located then followed by at least a dozen

CHIFFCHAFF
and a

GREY WAGTAIL
gorging itself in a filtration pond while as ever many dozens of

BLACK-HEADED GULLs
were also in attendance.

Close by an attempt was made to coax a Treecreeper from hiding, one of 3 without result, while along the Solar Panel

Tree Line

MEADOW PIPIT
along with a few

REDWING
and just the briefest view of a

LITTLE EGRET
By sharp comparison to that last location the

HEATH
was a total disaster and a record breaker as the first time a total blank wa achieved.

However there was to be a Beauty about the Blank

with the frosted Birches contrasing sharply with the Pines and the

Barbed Wire Fencing
taking on twice their usual girth.
Not there in the first instance or far more likely overlooked both

MISTLE THRUSH
and

CORMORANT
were added to the tally.
Heading for the Solar Panel Compound gate en-route was another opportunity to stop off at the Irrigation Pond where the

WATER RAIL
was now giving it big licks and as a bonus only for the second time ever over the years it was also seen just briefly. The day also ended in surprising fashion within the compound with the 2 final species being the very last we would expect to record there, The fist c2 over-flying

MALLARD
along with a perched

SONG THRUSH
never to our memory having been recorded within before!
On such days there will always something 'common' that gets missed, but we won't dwell on that, as 52 SPECIES is not a Record Breaker but a most acceptable reture for the effort and we still have almost a full year to come!!