Jackie and I due to the bad weather started our new year list on the 2nd January, though we did a little garden watching on the 1st. So it was off around the harbour starting at Hamworthy Park for the Snow Bunting was as expected easy just a walk out to the beach and there it was feeding, a good start to the day. We then a drove around to Studland and worked our way back to home.
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| Snow Bunting - Hamworthy Park © Nick Hull |
At Studland we started looking outside the harbour from South Haven where we had 3 Great Northern Diver and had 2 Sanderling flying by heading towards Pilot's Point, a nice record as there hasn't been many seen this winter. As we crossed the car park Ian Lewis, who was also birding the area, called us back as he just pick up 2 Firecrest in the willows by the car park a nice addition to our list. We crossed the road and scoped the inner harbour from the Boathouses here we added a very nice female Eider. We also saw 3 more Great Northern Diver plus the usual Red-breasted Mergansers, and Goldeneye another species that is becoming scarce to find in the harbour in recent years. We then moved on to Brand's Bay hide adding a few common wader species and Brent Goose then to Middle Beach, here we added Slavonian and Black-necked Grebe and 2 more Great Northern Diver. We then popped into Norden Sewage Works to add Grey Wagtail and Chiffchaff and added another Firecrest.
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| Firecrest - Norden Sewage Farm © Nick Hull |
We took a took a bit of a detour journey to return home going via Wild Woodbury, where we added a few species ie Stonechat, Kestrel, Bullfinch and Mistle Thrush all nice species to get.
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| Kestrel - Wild Woodbury © Nick Hull |
Next day, the 3rd we had to go into Poole so we dropped by Poole Park adding Greylag Goose, Tufted Duck, Moorhen and a couple of Mandarin Duck.
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| Mardain - Poole Park © Nick Hull |
On the 4th we had been invited out on a Birdboat around the harbour this added three more species to our list Barnacle Goose, Slavonian Grebe, Sandwich Tern, a couple of Marsh Harrier but the White-tailed Eagles must have been on an explore day as they didn't show.
As we had missed Purple Sandpiper and the eagles in our home harbour Jackie and I decided on the 7th to take a trip over to Christchurch and Mudeford but we popped into Whitecliff for the Black-throated Diver, luckily it was still there and only took a few minutes to find it out in Parkstone Bay, before moving on to Christchurch.
There was no sign of the eagle in Christchurch Harbour or the Purple Sandpipers from Mudeford Quay, So we headed up the Avon valley to see if we could find the eagle but again drew a blank. Though we did see a Red Kite near Dragon Lane, It was when we were at Ringwood Jackie remembered that before Christmas Hawfinch had been seen at Braemar Church so only being a little further up the road, we headed off and ten minutes later we were parked outside the church. As we walked into the churchyard I was just ahead of Jackie and as I turned four Hawfinch few up out of one of the trees and right over Jackie I had good flight views but unfortunately Jackie only heard their calls. I didn't think they had gone far so we had a walk around the small woodland and then walked back to the churchyard for a last look. We met Mike Gibbons in the the churchyard doing the same as us looking for the Hawfinch, whilst chatting I noticed a bird fly up to the top of a tree in the corner of the yard and there was a Hawfinch. We then decided to go via Wyke Down on our way home and en-route we saw a covey of Grey Partridge. When we arrived at Wyke there were alot of people there so we decided not to stay as there wasn't anywhere I could park the van safely off the road but we did manage to see a couple of Short-eared Owls as we drove past.
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| Short-eared Owl - Archive photo © Nick Hull |
On the 8th we added Common Scoter off Middle Beach and Redwing in Upton CP, on the 9th we had a nice Hen Harrier over the Bay and had our first Siskin flyover from the Rock Lea VP. On the 10th we had Golden Plover at Maiden Castle, Great White Egret at Silverlake, Cattle Egret at Holwell and Yellowhammer and Brambling between Piddletrenthide and Cerne Abbas where we found a large winter flock of mixed finches and buntings. We finished the day with a Lesser Redpoll on the feeder at home.
On the 14th we headed down to Lodmoor to see the Green-winged Teal as we hadn't found the one that was in Brand's Bay I suppose it's possible that this was the same bird. We started with brief views of Bearded Tit flying over the reed bed. We also added Water Rail, Cetti's Warbler, Snipe before Jackie found the Green-winged Teal tucked up with a few of it's European cousins. After we headed to Camp Road to see if the Cirl Buntings were still at the stables and indeed they were all five of them a couple of males and three females gave good views though too distant to get a good photo.
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| Green-winged Teal & Eupopean Teal - Lodmoor © Nick Hull |
Next day we had a walk with friends at Arne and caight up with Spoonbill and whilst we were checking out the birds over the marsh opposite Round Island everything and I mean everything lifted of the marsh. There were Curlew, Brent Geese, Oystercatcher, Redshank, gulls Cormorants, Wigeon Mallard all in flight the sky was dotted with birds heading in all directions. Both Jackie and I said almost together 'where is it' and then in front of us a White-tailed Eagle appeared flying down from Middlebere and landed briefly in a tree on Round Island before heading off across the harbour.
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| Distant Imm. White-tailed Eagle - Arne RSPB © Nick Hull |
On the 17th I met up with Terry and took him to see and photograph the Snow Bunting at Hamworthy and the intention was to pick Jackie up once finished and go to Longham Lake to see the Lesser Scaup but she didn't feel top of the world as she was still suffering after effects from her vacination the previous day. So I headed off with Terry and had good views of this North American duck with Pochard and Tufted on the South Lake, both are still present as I write this blog.
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| Lesser Scaup - Longham Lakes © Nick Hull |
We ended the month of 123 species slightly up on January 2024 so hopefully we can keep going and have a much better year.
