Between School and University Challenge

I have decided to set myself the challenge of seeing 600 species of bird between finishing my final exam at school and starting my first lecture at University (in March 2016). In the meantime, I will visit the USA (on a non-birding holiday sadly), Kenya, New Zealand and finally Australia, where I will be studying at University. I have also got four weeks in the UK and I have just returned from a trip to Italy (again purely non-birding). My list is shown on the sidebar.

I finished my exams on the 17th June, and immediately set out looking for birds. My first was a single Carrion Crow perched on Sherborne Abbey, shortly followed by a large flock of Common Swifts and a Sparrowhawk. I spent the rest of the day searching for additions to the list, the highlight of which was definitely my third garden record of the Red Kite, one of which drifted low over.

I visited the Weymouth-Portland area on the 19th, and unsurprisingly this brought several more species. I started at Maiden Castle, where I quickly found a number of my target bird, the Corn Bunting.

Corn Bunting, Maiden Castle. Changed farming practices has made this species rare across most of Dorset, but thankfully it remains common around Maiden Castle.

It was also nice to find my first Common Whitethroats of the year. Every bush around the Castle seemed to contain one of these fantastic Warblers.

Common Whitethroat, Maiden Castle

With my first Skylarks and Wrens of my challenge also seen in the area, I then headed to Weymouth. I started at Radipole Lake RSPB, where I found a number of the species that breed in the reserve. The highlights were my first Reed and Sedge Warblers and Common Terns of the year, along with a Cetti's Warbler.

Young Great Crested Grebe, Radipole Lake RSPB.

I then moved on to Portland Bill. It was very quiet bird-wise around the Bill, though it was nice to see the seabird colony, with large numbers of Razorbills, Guillemots and Shags present, along with several Kittiwakes and Fulmars and lots of passing Gannets. Sadly the Little Owls weren't showing and there was seemingly no migrant activity at all.

My next stop was Ferrybridge. Sadly, dog-walkers had ignored the signs to stay off the beach and consequently it was completely devoid of any bird-life. A search of Portland Harbour quickly brought a number of Little Terns, always a fantastic species to see and a great bird to have breeding in the area, along with several more Common Terns and some Sandwich Terns.

Finally, I visited Lodmoor RSPB. Thankfully, the Common Tern colony seemed to be in full-flow after a disastrous year last year. I managed to add a few more species to my 'challenge list,' with a flock of Black-tailed Godwits and a fantastic Marsh Harrier the highlights.

Eurasian Oystercatcher, Lodmoor RSPB.

Black-tailed Godwits, Lodmoor RSPB.

I finished the day on 80 species. The next ten days were extremely busy, and as a result I only managed to add three more birds to the list (Mistle Thrush, Marsh Tit and Long-tailed Tit). On the 29th June, we headed off to Italy. I will cover that trip in the next post.