You Can Only Report What's There!

To say that yesterday was a 'struggle' would be a mojor understatement, with little or maybe nothing right across our Recording Area. Of note, it would seem

MISTER RYAN
may be back in business out of Bournemouth International but out in the field there was little more than this lone lady

TEAL
and the long redundant

AIRBUSES
still confined to the pan - desperate time need desperate measures, time to break out the

HOVIS
A few slices of liberally scattered slices just outside the door of Sligh Return and down they came.

As is usual it was greedy

BLACK-HEADED GULLS
first to appear followed in quick succession by eqally voracious

STARLINGs
The local

WOOD PIGEONs
also got in on the act but it was something of a surprise to note a

HERRING GULL
so close to home and just to pad it out a bit more

BLACK-HEAD

activity

and apologise for dropping so much excitement on you without prior warning, especially if you are at the breakfast table!

Off Piste

 Out of mild frustration as much as the desire to add more species to the 2021 List, with almost a total Blank on home turf we decided to give Longham Lakes a 'first of the year visit' with * denoting additions for Dorset.

GREAT WHITE EGRET*

not surprisingly the first contender to hit the list and

followed in quick succession by the 3 Musketeers
CORMORANT
and

LITTLE EGRET
both alraedy consigned to the list but followed by

GADWALL*

COOT*

COOT and GADWALL
which both did the trick

as did

POCHARD*
It was no more than the plumage of the juvenile

HERRING GULL

that attracted the attention as a feeding female

COOT
in the margins proved too much of a temptation.
Both

GREAT CRESTED GREBE*
and

TUFTED DUCK*

graced the log as did this

GREY HERON*
but only at great distance.
The final species was not an addition either but as with all GULLs including this

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL

we simply cannot pass them by - Keep Watching!

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