Poole Harbour

Last week we thought we would have a look around Poole Harbour to see if it might be a suitable site for a day trip, or even a second half of a day trip with Durlston Head.

We started at the RSPB's reserve at Arne. As soon as you get out of the car you are met by flocks of finches and tits all busily feeding on the many bird feeders. We counted at least 20 siskin here, and at a very short range - great stuff!

We headed off towards Shipstal Point where you can see roosting/feeding waders depending on the state of the tide and a variety of duck and other birds. We soon picked up a few red-breasted merganser and goldeneye, as well as roosting oystercatcher and turnstone.

Male red-breasted merganser

We then headed over to the two-storey hide which has views over another roosting area. As we arrived we spotted a number of very white blobs, a passing marsh harrier woke them up to reveal a flock of 20 spoonbill.

20 spoonbill - managed to fit them all in!

The marsh harrier made another couple of passes, putting everything into the air. flocks of curlew, wigeon, oystercatcher, teal, redshank and brent geese were in the air swirling around - quite a sight! We were lucky to find the brent geese landed right in front of the hide giving us great views of them!

Brent geese

We continued back to the car park picking up Dartford warbler, avocet and crossbill amongst a variety of commoner species on the way. The main mammal to be seen on site is the Sika Deer, we saw around a hundred while walking around, including a very confiding group of bucks.

Well, relatively confiding anyway...

The next destination was the southern edge of the harbour along the Studland Peninsula. Here we soon found black-necked grebe and great northern diver mixed in with the great crested grebe.

There were about 35 sanderling along the beach and a lot of Mediteranean gulls, infact over 100 dotted along the shoreline. They are getting their black hoods now and together with their white wing tips there are very dapper gull.

Med gull (left) and black-headed gull (right)

   

Adult Med gull showing off its white eyelids and red eye.

 All in all a great trip and an area that will be added to our website next year we think! (NA)

Half day at the Cotswold Water Park

Valentine's Day at the water park.

Today saw us at the water park for a morning tour.

We started at 09:00 in glorious sunshine and soon found a large group of Red crested pochard on our first lake looking splendid in the bright sunlight.

On our next lake we found several groups of Wigeon and Teal feeding around the edge of the lake with a nice pair of Goldeneye out in the middle.

Moving on around the park we soon located a pair of Goosander whilst watching several herons carrying sticks up to their nesting trees.

Several Buzzards were on the wing making the most of the fine conditions with a few Redwing moving over head also.

Moving onto a couple of the smaller lakes in the area we found a pair of Smew a very special duck that seems to favour the water park as its winter home in total three birds were seen two males and a female.

Following our steps back both Green and Great spotted woodpecker were seen along with Reed bunting and Lapwing.

As time was getting on we head back to our final lake to see if the Great northern diver was still present which has been in the park for the last month or so, as it turned out it was very easy to find as it was the only bird on the water giving some fantastic views as it dived for food.

Another very rewarding morning spent in the water park with two very enthusiastic guests. DT

Cotswold Water Park and Blakehill afternoon

Today I had a few hours to spare so headed out to the Cotswold Water Park.

The reported Great Northern Diver showed well at my first stop coming very close to the lake edge then diving under and reappearing out in the middle of the lake, great to see one of these inland and so close.

My next stop found me looking through a large raft of waterfowl trying to see how many different species could be found. Pintail, Goldeneye, Shelduck, Shoverler, Teal, Pochard, Red crested pochard, Wigeon, Gadwall, Mallard plus over 300 Lapwing an impressive sight well over 2000 birds on the water.

A quick stop to look at one of the flooded fields produced 10 Little egrets.

Next a quick late visit to Blakehill farm which turned out to be well worth the time, with a single Short eared owl giving some close views and a distant Merlin sat on a fence post, also singles of Sparrowhawk and Peregrine with several flocks of Fieldfare, Redwing and Starling flying over.

Not a bad couple of hours on a gloomy January day. DT

WeBS-tactular day!

Darren and I have mentioned before about the voluntary conservation work we do, particularly surveys.  One that we both do is the national duck count  - Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). This is a monthly count of all the waterfowl in the UK, volunteers each go to their count area on the same day and count all the waterfowl. We both count parts of the Cotswold Water Park and I count Cleveland Lakes. This is an area we sometimes go to on tours as there are a nice selection of waterbirds usually present.

I've been counting here for about a year, having done other areas in the past and its amazing how quickly you find it starts to become your 'patch'. You get a feel for what is good and bad, the first time you get a particular species that might be common at lots of other sites, but a good find at your site. I really do enjoy it greatly.

male lesser redpoll - feeding by the trackside

Its by no means an easy stroll around counting a few duck, this month I had to wear waders as the water was well above knee height. I could have taken a drier route, but the vast majority of the birds would have seen me coming and would have flushed! At one point my tripod had to double up as an ice-breaker as I was worried about slicing my waders open as the ice got thicker!

displaying male goldeneye

I soon arrived at the counting point and I was not disappointed, there were 1000's of duck of several different species. What a sight! Luckily I had remembered my tally counter that was soon put to good use counting over 2,000 wigeon, over a 1,000 teal, 250 shoveler, 250 gadwall, 650 coot and 100 pintail!

If you ever get the chance to help in surveys like WeBS, please consider it, the data is of massive value because everyone is counting at the same time, it gives a more accurate picture of the populations. Invaluable to help the UK's planners make informed decisions about future developments.

Can't wait for next month! (NA)

Cotswold Water Park - 29th December 2015

Luckily we booked great weather for this trip, we did a circular walk at the Western end of the Cotswold Water Park. We soon picked up some movement in the tops of the alder trees by the car park, this turned out to be about ten siskin busily feeding on the tiny alder cones. A great start!
We headed towards the lakes and we were soon watching about 90 red-crested pochard feeding and displaying on the first lake. Just as we were heading off we spotted a pale bird diving at the back of the lake that turned out to be a male goosander whom we watched diving for several minutes. We were also lucky enough to see tufted duck, coot, mute swan and cormorant here.
As we wandered on along the river Thames we saw a few redwing, fieldfare and long-tailed tit busily feeding in and on the hedgerow bushes as well as a very showy female great spotted woodpecker. The next bird was a real stunner – at least four bullfinch sitting at the top of a bush in the sun feeding on buds, one of the best views I’ve had of this relatively secretive bird.

Female bullfinch

We concentrated on a couple of lakes next, checking the duck and saw good numbers of wigeon, gadwall and goosander as well as a fair few goldeneye displaying.

We worked our way through the woodland and soon reached some more lakes where we had our first common pochard, great crested grebe and mallard. We also picked up a surprisingly well hidden grey heron hidden in a tree. The next birds found were a couple of little grebe feeding along a lake edge.

Grey heron - not being very stealthy...

As we worked our way back towards the car park we saw more redwing feeding as well as a pair of Mistle thrush hunting for invertebrates on the grassland. The next sighting was of bits of a signal crayfish left on the bank by a mammal, most likely an otter.

All in all a very productive trip! (NA)

Wet Water Park

Yesterday another trip to The Cotswold Water Park and today it lived upto its name.

WIth the forcast looking ok we set out finding Red crested pochard on the first lake with a couple of tufted duck mixed in also a lone pochard.

Moving along the path a couple of goldcrest showed well with several great and blue tits in toe.

This is when the rain moved in with several prolonged spell of heavy rain, soaked but still undetered we carried on picking up a couple of very confiding chiffchaffs chasing each other around a small bush on the lakes edge.

At the next lake three male goosander were found through the gloom as we look out over the lake.

Next we headed for the shelter of the hides and with patient were rewarded with fantastic views of a kingfisher fishing from both high and low branches, after about ten minutes and about four attempts he final caught a small fish and flew off out of sight.

Next stop the cafe for a hot drink and a bacon butty!

The afternoon had started to brighten up so off again to check some of the larger lakes, we soon added several duck species to the list with Shoverler, gadwall, mallard and wigeon all being seen at close range.

Moving to an area of overgrown vegetation we saw a small flock of birds moving along the top of the seeding plants and with closer inspection turned out to be a charm of goldfinches also mixed in we picked out half a dozen redpoll which moved closer to us giving some superb views of this tiny bird.

At our final stop we enjoyed a fantastic sunset watching the rooks and jackdaws flying noisily in to roost for the evening.

Other birds of note include both great spotted and green woodpeckers, redwing, fieldfare, little grebe, bullfinch, three little egrets and a sparrowhawk dashed across the lake.

Just goes to show don't let the rain put you off nature still goes about its business. DT

Bright and not so breezy at CWP

The forecast suggested it was going to be a sunny and windy day for yesterday's trip to the Cotswold Water Park. Fortunately there was a lot of the former and very little of the latter.

We started off in near still conditions and were soon watching three female goosander at the far end of the first lake. Some farm machinery started up and it spooked the birds, who flew to our end of the lake giving great views in the morning sun. The birds were hunting as a group, diving in formation. A cormorant gatecrashed the party by landing right in the middle of the three birds - much to their disgust!

A look around the trees where we were produced a flock of at least 20 siskin feeding in the alders and coming down to the ground to drink from puddles only a few metres from us - brilliant! Amongst the trees thrushes were busily feeding with redwing, blackbird and song thrush seen.

On the next lake we checked we were greeted by the sight of 59 red crested pochard initially feeding and then displaying in a cauldron of bubbling water and frantic calling. A site pretty much unique to the Cotswold Water Park in the UK. A few tufted duck and a pair of goosander, including a splendid male were also feeding on the lake.

male goosander

We were lucky enough to see a number of smaller birds working through the hedgerows on the next section, these included robin, dunnock, bullfinch, chaffinch, goldfinch and a group of long-tailed tit.

Perhaps the highlight of the walk was found whilst watching a pair of goldeneye. I saw a movement in the bottom of the hedge we were stood near, it was a weasel looking out of a hole in the bank! He disappeared down the hole, then reappeared and repeated this a couple of times. He then built up enough courage to run towards us a few feet, fear got the best of him and he returned to the sanctuary of the hole. A few seconds later he was out again to rush forward and grab a dead field vole and rush off along the hedgerow base. Presumably we surprised him as we arrived. A special sight indeed!

As we continued along our route, we added coot, moorhen, gadwall, wigeon, mute swan and great crested grebe to our list. We also spent some time picking through the gulls with black-headed, common and lesser black-backed being seen.

We then headed through a stretch of woodland where we picked up treecreeper and great spotted woodpecker. The treecreeper especially putting on a great show of tree climbing acrobatics!

We were soon out into the open again, where we saw a grey heron and a very vocal green sandpiper. At our next lake we found a nice flock of pochard feeding with tufted duck. There were also a couple of little grebe fishing along the edge of one of the islands and we saw the first mallard of the day dabbling along the edge of the same island. On a stretch of grassland we had great views of a fieldfare, mistle thrush and a green woodpecker busily hunting for their respective food.

Fieldfare

Our next interesting find were the remains of a signal crawfish that had been the lunch for an otter.

Along the edge of the next lake we finally saw a wren, a species that had proved elusive. We also found a few chiffchaff hunting through the hedgerow bramble and ivy. We picked up our last duck species of the day - a flock of teal. Further sightings of bullfinch, redwing and song thrush took us to lunchtime.

After lunch we concentrated on one site where we were lucky enough to see a two kingfisher, one of which had a feeding post a few metres from us. We saw him catch two fish in about 30 minutes. We also had views of kestrel and buzzard here. A great day out! (NA)