The Bagsy Blog: 01/18/14

Saturday, 18 January 2014

On the Wings of Love - Jeffrey Osborne

Thursday came and Thursday went but still no positive news about the Internet. I had to go to Weymouth on another matter so made an early start and visited a few potential bird sites on the way. Common Crane is already on the Year List but to see such scarce visitors to the County at anytime is considered a treat. With the c2 1st winter (young) birds still frequenting fields in the Puddletown area and now favouring a different location that was to be the first challenge of the day. Piddles and Puddles are familiar Dorset names around that area for the likes of the River Piddle, Piddlehinton village or

BRIANTSPUDDLE

close to where the Cranes were last seen.

I don't remember the last time a visit was paid to this beautiful locale but it must have been when my 2 daughters were still at school. What had slipped the memory was the narrowness of the country lanes and add to that continues heavy rain the search was in vain. Otherwise the success rate for the day was 50 - 50. At Oakers Wood a

LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER*

was 'heard' only with the photo, along with the 2 below, coming from the archive. Later in the day I heard from a fellow birder that he too had seen the Marsh Tit of the 13th but not the Woodpecker. Next stop Portland Harbour (north) and almost immediately getting onto the over-wintering

RED-NECKED GREBE*

which was more or less in company with c5 Black-necked Grebes.

Through the murk the
Royal Fleet Auxiliary Logistics Vessel
LYME BAY

could be seen, and while once again the Black Guillemot and Black-throated Diver were on view nothing was seen of the Long-tailed Duck or the Eider. Other than that my business was completed there so, through continuing rain, I headed back east. A brief visit to a still flooded Avon Causeway didn't produce the sort after Egyptian Goose so a hour was spent at Longham Lakes simply 'clicking away' at anything that graced the viewfinder!