Back to Clouds hill for another autumn

It’s been quite a busy day and it’s not even 4 o’clock yet! This morning I have my first proper session at Clouds Hill where the ringing gods (whoever they are) eased me in gently. 32 birds caught, most of which were migrants though several Dunnocks made it onto the list which is probably a sign of things to come.  A Lesser Whitethroat was first out of the net.

Followed by several Whitethroats along with Blackcaps and Willow Warblers.

I then had to pop into work for a couple of hours but on returning home took a call about this amazing thing on Portland!

I’ve been wanting to see one of these for ages so glad it stuck around long enough for me to get there.

Lastly, I took the opportunity to get a few more picture of last nights weird Wagtail prior to release this morning. Interesting looking thing.

Almost certainly a Blue-headed Wagtail but my mind started exploring other more exotic wagtails, especially when compared with this other probably Blue-headed Wagtail also caught last night.

These birds are a bit of a mystery to me!

The future is Bright... the future is Yellow (not orange!)

I can’t put this off any longer, I’m going to have to post. So much has happened in the last week and nearly every evening has been taken up by ringing (not that I’m complaining!). This last week has seen a sudden increase in Yellow Wagtails at Abbotsbury and thankfully its coincided with good weather. This has allowed to get out that last four nights which has yielded well over 400 Wagtails caught and ringed! Fingers crossed the good weather continues and we keep catching! The catch has contained a few interesting birds, a few which appear to have blue coming through on the head. These birds are presumably ‘flava’? However I wouldn’t know where to start with this bird from this evening!

I can’t post this evening without mentioning a mega rarity which is currently (probably as I type) over at Lodmoor. It started life as a Long billed Dowitcher which didn’t get me scurrying across but a few days later a transformed into a Short billed Dowitcher which is a damn sight rarer! In fact only the second for Britain! Quite possibly the bird of the decade for the Weymouth reserves!

Unfortunately this picture doesn’t quite do it justice but its all I’ve got!

Lesser Emperor - Round two.

This afternoon I seem to have managed the impossible. I got a picture of the Lesser Emperor which was again frequenting Radipole today. Its appearances were rather sparse today as they were yesterday and opportunities to photograph it lasted roughly three seconds each time but this was result!

Well you can at least see what it is... just!

A few moths pics

As sort of promised yesterday, here are a few moth pictures.

Jersey Tiger is a regular in the trap at this time of year; in fact there were four in the trap this morning.

Willow Ermine from yesterday. First record at Radipole which usually just means that someone’s not managed to ID one before but this could be an immigrant rather than a local. Saying that, the ermines are a tricky group to ID so hope I’m right!

Caught this species last night though this photo was taken back in Wales about 5 years. It imitates birds poo which is a pretty good way of stopping birds from eating you! Its a Chinese Character by the way.

One final one, not caught locally but one for any mothers who have the time to read my garble to ponder over. Picture not especially sharp as it was taken indoors on a rainy day.

It's been a month but I'm back!

This is the first post for a while but think of the last month like some sort of summer holiday or something. It’s been rather quiet on the bird front and works been rather eventful but today I immersed myself back into the life of a naturalist. No, I didn’t strip off and head for the beach (that a naturist!) instead I went ringing which was rather dire to say the least. Every year we monitor Radipole Lake for Aquatic Warbler which in the past has proved worthwhile. However the last few years have seen something of a lull in records so my hope was that I can end this Aquatic drought. A session this morning saw just seven birds caught (non of which were Aquatic Warbler obviously) which is a lot less than what you’d expect for the time of year. Hopefully things will pick up!

Got back from ringing and got stuck in the moth trap where the first Jersey Tiger of the season obliged. As well as that there were plenty of other things so see including Radipole’s first Willow Ermine. Will possibly add photo’s another day.

Then headed off to work down at the Radipole visitor centre where the day really went crazy. My first and Radipole’s first Lesser Emperor appeared in front of me whilst standing on the visitor centre bridge! Couldn’t quite believe it at first and after blurting out several swear words I managed to explain to the people next to me that I wasn’t mad, I had just found a rather rare Dragonfly!

A rather neat little twitched developed (three of us!) but it remained elusive for several hours much to the frustration of some! I didn’t have my camera and nobody else managed a photo which leaves me with a slight dilemma. Should I steal one of the internet?? Nah... I won’t bother.

An ecological disaster?

Well, apparently not. Though this weather is really getting on my tits now! The scenes around Weymouth have been quite extraordinary during the last 24 hours. The biggest disaster of course is the flooding of the Olympic park and ride drop off point. Well it is if you read the local and national papers and have seen the news coverage. How the hell can a bloody car park flooding be bigger news than a whole ecosystem being wiped out? Marsh Harriers chicks... gone. Countless Reed and Sedge Warbler nests... gone. Bearded Tit nests... gone. Thousands of inverts... gone. Reptiles and tons of small mammals... you’ve guessed it, gone.

This shot is of the concrete bridge at Radipole!

OK, this type of thing does happen from time to time and we just have ride it through and obviously the wildlife will recover eventually but it really does annoy how oblivious most of Weymouth was to the devastation unfold before their eyes.

Whilst at Lodmoor yesterday and this morning I was amazed that even birders were oblivious to the carnage right in front of them. Whilst there yesterday assessing the tern island situation (which was very bad) a birder wanders in and asked where the White-winged Black Tern was. I said that I had been counting tern chicks that were having to swim around desperately trying to find somewhere to pitch up rather than looking for the other tern. Instead of him saying something like ‘Oh God, that a disaster’ he said something along the lines of, ‘Oh, I’ll got further down the path to look for the Black Tern’. Admittedly, most birder I’m sure noticed what was going on but that just got to me!

In protest I’m not going to post a picture of the White-winged Black Tern but instead here’s a shot of some of the surviving Common Tern chicks at Lodmoor which managed to make to a bit of dry land.

When all's quiet

Turn to moths. I’ve not run a trap much this year (or last for that matter) but it’s now back to being a permanent feature in the garden. Last night was a half decent night with a few nice species. Only migrants were a single Dark Sword Grass and a Silver Y but the moth of the night award went to a Dingy Shears which is a localised species in Dorset.

This time of year is normally very quiet for birds so I maybe resorting to moths to keep this blog alive and kicking over the next few weeks until the onslaught of migrant birds flood to Dorset on their return journey. Well… I hope, but considering the bad weather I doubt there’ll be that many fledglings making their first migration this year. Fingers crossed I’m proved wrong!