Run to the Hills - Iron Maiden

On another dark and dank morning, with the temperature promising to rise, we once again found all the watercourses frozen over save for a dartboard size 'ice-hole' at the Irrigation Pond being favoured by c8 Mallard. With little or no prospect of any Wildfowl we cut along to the Sewerage Works hedge where we took up station, as we do on most Winter mornings, and waited to see what popped out. The wait was short as not 'one' but 'two' squabbling

 FIRECREST

 

 broke cover, put on a pugilistic demonstration before disappearing

as quickly as they had arrived. Always considered a Brilliant addition to any

Year List!

 The plan from thereon was always to wander a little further afield and after

a short detour at Red Post, in search of either species of Partridge

(which drew a BLANK) it was onward to Lane End at Bere Regis.

There, the wonder of the Firecrests dissipated at the hands of the

FLY-TIPPERS

Not content with desecrating Dorset's Green and Pleasant Lands
these oafs have parked their gash in the gateway of a small redundant farm
owned by 2 more elderly and lovely people who feed the Birds here
on a daily basis.

While not wishing to sound Draconian, in a nutshell, it would be best

for the decent element of society to simply 'HANG' 'first offenders',

 and make the punishment far more severe for repeat offenders!

Back to the matter in hand and a very good chance to see

YELLOWHAMMER

here in fact on that day

there seemed to be more than ever remembered

over the last 45 years?

From there we travelled further west to the County Town of Dorchester
in search of a far more scarce Bird in terms of visitors to Dorset.
If, as was hoped, there were other Birders in attendance the task may have
been fulfilled right away but unfortunately this was about to turn into a
Needle in a Haystack!

Somewhere, across the vast sprawl of a housing estate, lay our quarry but
there was some help from the Bird Information Service which had only been
reporting it from one or other of just 2 roads. A favoured address had been given
so that was where the car was parked before setting out on our lone search which in total
took 90 minutes before returning to find the

ROSE-COLOURED STARLING

on the TV aeriel of the house described.
(can you see it yet?)

 lower centre

The best we could do under the circumstances.
In addition there were some very nice people stopped and enquired
as to what was going on, including Ivan the Postman, Jules 9an ex-diver
but not Verne), a local lady householder and 2 young lady school teachers
with their bevy of charges who it was a delight to show the images to.
The Iron Age Hill Fort which is

 MAIDEN CASTLE (Link)
Iron Maiden - gedit?
 is literally just around the corner from the Rose-coloured Starling,
which was to be our next Port of Call,
but of more particular interest were the surrounding fields and bridleways.

West End of the Earthworks.
Met by a veritable storm of a considered 1000+

GOLDEN PLOVER

only a single Bird was close enough for a photograph

and a short video clip.

SHEEP

Close by and at about the same distance was another Year Tick

in the shape of a

MEDITERRANEAN GULL

Overflying Golden Plover

The nest Year Tick was also a

GULL

this time a

COMMON GULL
more

GOLDEN PLOVER

 Eastern End of the Earthworks.
To end our visit we also found, mostly among the ground crops

 a small group of

SKYLARK
and an similar number of

 far more reluctant to be photographed

CORN BUNTING

Entry	Pageviews
United States	394
United Kingdom	288
China	248
Germany	37
France	22
Canada	12
New Zealand	12
Estonia	11
Sweden	7
Singapore	6