Woodcock!

 The Colour ringed Bearded Tit seen at the ARC from Hanson on Saturday 4th November was ringed at Radipole, Weymouth on 25th July this year. Many thanks to Stephen Hales for the ringing information. 

 Woodcock over The Desert

This mornings walk around The Point, Desert and Trapping Area was again fairly quiet and again a Hawfinch free zone. However my first Woodcock of the year which jumped up from under my feet and quickly disappeared into the trapping area was a bonus, several Redpolls and Reed Buntings flew over and 3 Song Thrushes flushed from the Broome. In the bushes a single Chiffchaff and 10+ Goldcrests.  

 Woodcock over The Desert

Common Buzzard over Lade Desert

By the track to the pines from the ARC car park a large Tit flock with a minimum of 36 Long-tailed Tits and 6 more Goldcrests. As the weather was so nice I decided to continue out into the Lade Desert and out to the Gorse, a Common Buzzard wheeled overhead, 2 Marsh Harriers were over the airport reed bed and 3 Great White Egrets could be seen flying over Lade South, but despite searching all the areas of Gorse and Broome all I could find were a Robin, 2 Dunnocks and 2 Wrens, a long walk over the pebbles for little reward.

 Little Owl at Scotney

Late morning I parked at Scotney and walked around the back of the farm to Jury's Gap and back. The Little Owl was in its usual spot surveying the farm yard as I walked through, on the back eastern lake a Green Sandpiper and Redshank, c400 Greylag Geese and a party of 32 Egyptian Geese were in a nearby field. By the path a few Goldfinch, Linnets and Reed Buntings fed in the few remaining weedy patches but no Corn Buntings on this route, a Clouded Yellow was nice to see, it looks like the fields that held all the breeding Yellow wagtails have been turned over to Sheep grazing. A couple each of Common Buzzards and Marsh harriers were seen also a Peregrine and Merlin. On my return back past the western lakes a large flock of c500 Golden Plover dropped onto one of the islands, after several minutes of scanning I picked out the Dotterel that has been on the ARC recently. By the time I got back to my car and drove to the beach the flock flushed and the Dotterel made its way back to the ARC much to the relief of RW.

The sea was very quiet this afternoon with a few Common Scoter and Kittiwakes, the highlight being a drake Eider which flew up into Lade bay.  

 Goldfinch at Scotney

 Common Buzzard at Scotney

Common Buzzard at Scotney

Late afternoon at the ARC from Hanson in the company of RW & CT, the Dotterel was on it's own on one of the islands at the back, though flew off West as dark approached. We observed a minimum of 17 Great White Egrets dropping into the roost, we probably missed some, as we could not see the ones that would come in from Burrowes direction from our viewing point in Hanson hide.