Everythings Coming Up Roses - Black

Rosy Starling was high on the agenda today, and if the weather was anything to go by 'everything' would be coming up Rosy! Strange to think then that this time (same date) last year we were up to the gunwales in snow, and here are a few photos from the Blog page for that date. To see the full picture simply enter 2 December 2010 in the search engine and hit return.

Weymouth Sea Front

Radipole Lake Visitor's Centre

Radipole Lake

Melcombe Regis Cemetery

By comparison, this Oak Tree still holds on to most of its leafs even though they are brown, while in the cemetery the place was alive with bird song, mainly Blackbirds but also Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Wren and Goldcrest to name but a few.

At Radipole low mist hung over the reed beds but the rapidly rising sun in a clear blue sky would soon put paid to that, while bird-wise there was nothing unusual unless you count an overflying Peregrine, 9 Black-tailed Godwit, 47 Common Snipe and my first 'frost', this end of the year, on cars parked close by.

On the other hand there was 'towering cumulus cloud' stretching the full length of our section of the English Channel not looking at all good,

again in sharp contrast to Weymouth Bay

where the sun and lack of any wind made conditions feel warm!

Despite spending about 2 and a half hours on Lodmoor, there was no sign of the 'Starling' but there were plenty of common species to sort through including noticeable build up in numbers of Lapwing and Thrushes, mostly Blackbirds. Greenfinch were still capitalising on Blackberries still remaining, as

a Kingfisher flashed by, perching on a distant bush.

The Shelduck has landed!

2 or 3 Song Thrush

along with the afore mentioned good number of Blackbirds

plus a couple of Redwing were also making

the most of the abundance of other berries.

A small party of 9 Dunlin were feeding on the 'flats' along the western edge making a total of 23 including others seen earlier,

and in addition a few Shoveler,

Magpie

Lapwing

Gadwall

Dunnock

and Little Egret.

These Snow Geese had just flown in from the Canadian Tundra (I wish) looking every bit like feral farmyard birds of no known origin.

There were, as usual, a few Grey Heron while it was noticed that

numbers of Common Snipe had risen too. There were 10 feeding in this pool alone at one point. Mid-morning the sky clouded over and with no sun and just a slight increase in wind speed there was quite a noticeable drop in temperature.

Those high clouds were still chugging up Channel as I left the Moor to take a quick look at

this medium size 'bulk carrier' which had just taken fuel from a barge in Weymouth Bay.

Finally, I'd like to thank SimonK for his correction to the Post of 29/11/2011 where I published the river flowing through Wareham as the Stour. It is, as he pointed out, the Frome and the appropriate amendment has been made.

Thanks again Simon.

In Search of the Lost Chord - Moody Blues

For 'Chord' read 'Bird'!

The end of a most memorable November when no fewer than 8372 'hits' were logged on the Blog as 4 new counties joined the readership. There were 4 additions to the GB Year List (Glossy Ibis, Rosy Starling, Spotted Sandpiper* and Hume's Leaf Warbler*) with those marked * also increasing my Dorset List, while along with Dipper & Common Crane, it was the first time I had recorded any of them in the county during that month.

It is well known that, among several others, I keep an 'ongoing' Dorset Month List. That is to say once a species has been recorded in any particular month that is that which is interesting in itself but also spurs me on. So, with no fewer than 5 potential new birds to add to the December List (all rarities) it was an early start. First was a Ring-billed Gull, seen briefly at Radipole late yesterday afternoon, so despite the light rain I was searching there from first light. Helped by the usually present Ian Stanley, our search was in vane but there were a few Mediterranean Gulls (foreground) with Common Gull (behind), a number of Common Snipe, 5 Grey Heron, a Kingfisher and what sounded like a whole host of Bearded Tits with just a few seen.

In addition there was a single Black-tailed Godwit on the mud, but as I turned to leave 3 flew across the reserve.

Not the best of starts and the news on the birding websites had not been encouraging as it had not been reported for 4 days. That didn't mean the Spotted Sandpiper wasn't there, a bird that many must have thought might over-winter, so was always worth a look. It was the X53 that again that took me west and past what seem to be an unusually large number of sheep for this area,

before dropping down into the picturesque village of Abbotsbury with St Catherine's Chapel high on the hill in the distance.

Over a series of rolling hills, the next village is Burton Bradstock

with its quaint pub The Three Horseshoes.

At my destination Lyme Regis, now recognisable by most regular readers as being frequently visited of late, first on the scene were

about half a dozen Pied Wagtail

which along with

Rock Pipit are always good to see.

This is another Rock Pipit, the photograph being rather for the decaying wooden pile than the bird. With no sign of the Wader in the area where the River Lim meets the sea, it was just a short and very pleasant walk to the

(Lyme Regis) Harbour and the Cobb beyond. Along this stretch it becomes very obvious why so many birds linger here this time of year, as the Sand Flies were in 'swarm' proportions. Over the last 200 yards or so there were at least 48 Rock Pipits alone.

There is just a tiny beach where the sea wall meets the rocks forming an extension to the Cob, where I arrived just in time to see 19 Purple Sandpiper fly in.

Content to perch on the face of the stone work to start with, they soon moved to the beach where they began feeding, and where there may well have been another 2 making a total of 21??

One of my favourite Waders, hence the number of images, but although they are fairly recently arrived in a blink of the eye it will be time for them to return to their breeding grounds in Iceland.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of the Spot Sand, but hopefully it will be relocated over the next few days, I for one have not given up on it just yet and will likely return here again before the month is out!

Back to the River and a pair of Grey Wagtails had appeared

and were certainly worth a couple of shots as was a

Black Redstart not seen earlier in the day. With some luck starting to kick in, it was worth having a look for the

Dipper and joy of joys as the under-pinning work on a small bridge further upstream was completed making for no human disturbance.

A bird you could never get enough of, there were 2 here today and so good to see.

OK, no luck with the target birds so far but time for a pose in the new coat and an attempt to push the town clock over. As the return bus neared my stop a lady next to me received a call on her mobile describing where she was and the prevailing weather, Her exact words were "no rain yet and it doesn't like there will be any"! She was right, right up to the moment I stepped from the bus coinciding with the heavens opening. A mile and a half walk to hopefully see the

Hume's Leaf Warbler by which time the rain seemed to have set in for the day. Not ideal conditions to find, or see for that matter, such a tiny bird but on arrival met Dave Chown who after 40 minutes had finally located it. Fortunately, it showed again very quickly, but not wanting to get the camera/lens wet, this is the best that could be achieved. At least it was seen, and given the conditions very well, making it 1 out of 3 which is far preferable to 0 out of 3. I'll be looking for more tomorrow if the weather holds.