September getting back into more birding.

With the summer surveys coming to the an end it allows more time to go birding and we certainly need a birding boost with our year list at the end of September being 19 species behind our 2023 total at this point in the year.  Though some of the species we are missing could be caught up with, between now and the end of the year.  During the month we visited ten location only one outside Dorset and that was to Keyhaven & Pennington Marsh. 

The beginning of the month we visited Lodmoor, we saw little that was out of the ordinary, the resident Great White Egrets put on a show though the Grey Heron wasn't too happy when one of them caught a nice fish and chased it off.

Grey Heron chasing Great White Egret Lomoor - © Nick Hull

Otherwise during this month we saw nothing out of the ordinary that you wouldn't expect to see.  On a walk around the local patch I photographed our Mute Swan family out in the Lytchett Bay as one of the cygnets appears to be white rather than the usual brown.  This is a form which was given the name of a 'Polish' Mute Swan. After a little reading I contacted Steve Grove at the Abbotsbury Swannery for clarification on the plumage and it appear that this is just a bird which is leucistic and it occurs pretty commonly in Mute Swan as it does with some other species.

Pair of Mute Swan with leucistic (Polish) cygnet - Lytchett Bay © Nick Hull

I had a visit to Brownsea with friend Terry and spent a bit of time photographing the Red Squirrels which was nice and we recorded 52 Spoonbill on the lagoon which has increased to c60 since.

Inquisitive Red Squirrel - Brownsea Island © Nick Hull

The day of the month for Jackie and I was the 15th I had run my moth trap and was in the office and had just completed inputting the data and my mobile rings it's Ian Ballam saying he had just found a Red-backed Shrike in the hedge of the Whimbrel Field.  Jackie was just in the process of getting ready for the day so she picked up the pace and we were out the door and up the road joining Ian in the Whimbrel Field.  The bird performed perfectly flying back and forth perching on the different bushes in the hedge catching wasps, bees, and hoverflies.

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike - Lytchett Fields RSPB © Nick Hull

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike - Lytchett Fields RSPB © Nick Hull

Next day Jackie and met friends for a walk around Keyhaven and Pennington Marsh.  It was a fairly quiet day overall but we did add two species to our lagging year list Eider and Whinchat.  Our next additions were back on the Lytchett Patch on the 23rd when we found a Little Stint in the bay running around with Dunlin and had a Curlew Sandpiper which had been visiting the fields for a few days on French's Pools.  We also added Bar-tailed Godwit to our patch list which had been alluding us for a while. 

The only other wildlife that is worth mentioning was I recorded a new macro moth for the garden and patch a Small Wainscot a species of wet heathland and marsh which habitat we have a small patch across the road so it's a little strange that it's taken 13 years to catch one.

Small Wainscot Home Garden © Nick Hull

The autumn can be a good period to catch a new moth or two it the weather condition are right in at the time of writing this blog there has been a few rarities found in Dorset traps so hopefully next months blog there will be some good moths to write about.