Start of 2015

2015 promises to be a very exciting year for me (at least the second half of it does!) as I leave school and then embark on 7 months of travelling, before finishing up at my new home in Brisbane, Australia. In April I am visiting Scotland for the first time, which will hopefully give me the opportunity to see some of the country's amazing wildlife, followed by leaving school in June (after my A-levels!). I have booked a bus trip from San Fransisco to New York from mid-July to mid-August, which is hugely exciting as I will finally get to visit the amazing country that is the USA, somewhere I have always wanted to go to. After this, I will be volunteering for three months in northern Kenya, which will be followed by a short time in Queensland before I finish the year with about two months in one of my favourite places in the world, New Zealand. I'm hoping to visit Tasmania in early 2016 before I start at the University of Queensland in Brisbane at the end of February. I really can't wait!

In the meantime, however, I have to get on with finishing my A-level exams in Dorset. I have set myself the challenge of seeing 500 species of bird this calendar year and so I have been taking as many opportunities as I can to go birding in pursuit of this number. In this post, I'll go through the birding highlights of my year so far.

I made a brief visit to Portland Harbour on the 2nd of January, where the highlights (in very dull light) were my second-ever Red-necked Grebe, about five Slavonian Grebes, three Common Eider and four Great Northern Divers. I finished the day with a year total of 50- only 450 to go!

I had a great day of birdwatching around the Portland-Weymouth area on the 5th. I started at Maiden Castle near Dorchester, where I managed to find my main two targets, Golden Plover (about 1000 seen) and Corn Bunting, almost immediately, along with several other birds that were new for the year, such as Lapwing and Stonechat. I then visited Weymouth's fantastic Radipole Lake RSPB. Here, I added a number of waterfowl species to year list, including the reserve's resident Hooded Merganser (personally, I feel that this is a wild bird, so I'm counting it). A Cetti's Warbler was a fantastic bonus!

Hooded Merganser, Radipole Lake RSPB. What an awesome bird!

I then returned to Portland Harbour, and this time I found the Black-necked Grebe flock off Sandsfoot Castle along with the usual selection of Slavonian Grebes, Great Northern Divers, Eiders, Red-breasted Mergansers, etc. 

Slavonian Grebes off Sandsfoot Castle

I then headed to Portland Castle and this time the regular Black Guillemot was showing fantastically well, sat on buoy relatively close to the shore.

Black Guillemot off Portland Castle

Ferrybridge was bizarrely devoid of any waders at all, other than a number of Oystercatchers. I don't think I've ever been here before without seeing Dunlin!

I continued on to Portland Bill. A great number of seabirds were passing in the windy conditions, with thousands of Guillemots and Razorbills and dozens of Kittiwakes and Gannets. Sadly I was unable to find any Fulmars nor the Great Skua seen earlier in the day. After a prolonged search, I eventually found the fantastic six Purple Sandpipers showing brilliantly as they fed perilously close to the rough sea with a group of Turnstones.

Purple Sandpiper, Portland Bill

I then walked up to the Obs Quarry and was extremely fortunate to find the Little Owl showing brilliantly there.

Spot the Little Owl!

Little Owl, Obs Quarry, Portland

A brief search around Nothe Fort as it was getting dark sadly produced no Black Redstarts, but it was great to see three Great Northern Divers offshore and about 15 Chiffchaffs that have chosen to winter in the coniferous trees around the car park. This brought my 2015 total to 84.

I continued to add to that total over the next few days around Sherborne and Hilfield, with the highlights being a fantastic Barn Owl at Hilfield LNR and a flock of several hundred Fieldfares on Hilfield Hill. A rather quiet visit to Lodmoor RSPB on the 17th was made worthwhile by the sight of two Marsh Harriers that flew low over my head (they were too fast for a photo though!). Despite a lack of any other birds of any great interest, I really enjoyed watching some of the more common species at close quarters.

Gadwall, Lodmoor RSPB.

Tufted Duck, Lodmoor RSPB

Lapwing, Lodmoor RSPB

On the way home, it was very pleasing to find a pair of Wigeon very close to Hilfield, at Up Cerne, along with a number of Little Grebes and Teal.

On the 24th, I had another great morning around Weymouth. Starting at Portland Castle, I quickly found a Black Redstart and finally two Dunlin were at Ferrybridge. At Radipole Lake RSPB, I was incredibly fortunate to come across to groups of Bearded Tits. These really are such awesome birds and on this occasion I managed to take a couple of photographs of them for the first time.

Bearded Tit, Radipole Lake RSPB. This is definitely one of my favourite birds I have seen anywhere in the world.

This Reed Bunting was also a first for me in 2015.

I heard that a Greenland White-fronted Goose was showing well in front of the North Hide, so I rushed over there to find it. This is the first-ever record at Radipole and is presumably the same individual that I saw at Abbotsbury in November.

Greenland White-fronted Goose, Radipole Lake RSPB.

This Marsh Harrier was also showing fantastically from the North Hide

The next day, I visited Arne RSPB at Studland, with high hopes of finding some of Poole Harbour's fantastic specialities. Sadly, the luck really wasn't with me as I missed a huge number of great birds, including Spoonbill, Dartford Warbler and Hen Harrier. I suppose I have become rather complacent to feel disappointed to feel disappointed by a visit during which I 'only' saw a pair of Peregrine Falcons, a Merlin, two Marsh Harriers and an enormous flock of Avocet!

This Green Woodpecker was one of seven new species for me in 2015 that I saw at Arne on the 25th.

Arne is teeming with magnificent Sika Deer. This species was originally introduced to Brownsea Island for hunting purposes in the 19th Century from East Asia, however, amazingly, several individuals managed to swim across Poole Harbour to Studland, where there is now a thriving population, which is spreading rapidly throughout south Dorset.

Part of Arne's huge wintering Avocet flock. It's such a privilege to be able to see so many of this species that was once extremely rare in the UK. The grey birds are Black-tailed Godwits.

I then headed to Brand's Bay, hoping for Dartford Warblers, seaducks and some of the wader species I had missed at Arne. Sadly a distant flock of Pintail was the only new bird for the year, while seeing a Marsh Harrier was a fantastic bonus. I later discovered that I had missed a Hen Harrier flying over the bay by about five minutes!

Finally, I visited Middle Beach at Studland, hoping to find some seabirds offshore. I wasn't disappointed, with about 11 Slavonian and 6 Black-necked Grebes seen, along with a Great Northern Diver and 10 or so Common Scoter, which brought the year total to 108.

On the 30th, I revisited Winterbourne Abbas Cress Beds, which had brought me my first-ever Jack Snipes exactly a month ago. Sure enough, on this occasion, I was just as lucky, as three Jack Snipe were flushed along with about 20 Common Snipes by a passing Buzzard.

The next day, I paid a very quick visit to Yeovil's Ninesprings Country Park. This park is known for only one thing in birding terms- its 30-strong flock of Mandarin Ducks that spend the winter here. These birds were incredibly tame, but they are truly feral individuals. Needless to say, seeing these fantastically brightly-coloured ducks in a rather dingy park on a cold and grey Yeovil day made for a rather surreal combination!

Mandarin Ducks, Ninesprings Country Park, Yeovil

On the 16th February, I made a quick detour to Lodmoor RSPB to look for the two Spoonbills found there the previous day. I quickly found them and I enjoyed the great experience of watching this awesome species for a decent amount of time. Sadly I had failed to bring my camera with me.

I headed up to London later that day. I had seen that the bird I most wanted to see in the UK before I move to Australia had been showing well in Lincolnshire for about two weeks. When I discovered that to get to where it was required just a 45-minute journey on the train to Peterborough, followed by a short taxi journey to the Deeping Lakes Nature Reserve, I knew it had to be done. My Dad and I got up early the next day and were at the reserve by 8.20. Ours hearts were pounding as we headed towards the hide from which it had been seen regularly for so many days, knowing that with our luck it was almost certain that it had moved on overnight. 

The feeling when I found the bird roosting on the island in front of the hide was initially one of extreme relief, followed by complete joy. Finally, I had seen this incredibly awesome species, and there it was, fast asleep just in front of me!

Long-eared Owl!!!!! 

We watched the bird for about an hour, as it occasionally preened itself, on several occasions showing its awesome bright-orange eyes. After dipping on the bird so many times (at Exminster Marshes RSPB, Portland Bill five times, Steart and most painfully at Elmley NNR on the Isle of Sheppey), it was enormously pleasing to finally see the bird and to see it so well was an amazing privilege. Without a doubt, it is one of Britain's most awesome birds and I will certainly never forget this sighting.

The experience was added to by the presence of several other species that are scarce in the south-west. A magnificent drake Goldeneye was just in front of us, between us and the island that the Owl was on.

Drake Goldeneye at Deeping Lakes NR. This fantastic duck was very common at the reserve, with about 30 seen. 

Nearby, a pair of Goosanders paid a quick visit. 

Goosanders, Deeping Lakes NR

I also saw my first Kingfishers of the year, a species that is always a great pleasure to see, and my first Greylag Geese (I have never been able to understand why this bird is so rare in Dorset, but so common seemingly everywhere else in the UK!). In amongst the numerous Greylags was this bird:

Pink-footed Goose, Deeping Lakes NR

This was a great way to end an excellent morning, and much to many of the reserve's wardens and other visiting birders, our taxi soon arrived to take us back to Peterborough station (I can imagine that there can't have been many other birds who've arrived there in a black cab!). Now it is 117 down, 383 to go in my pursuit of 500 this year!