'Rare Raptor Renaissance'

Swannery birding highlights of the week...

Monday 13th to Sunday 19th May 2013...

The Swannery's third Black Kite!

In last week's post I declared there was still time for a good bird and I was for once proved right. Not only that, unlike last week's rare raptor, I was able to clinch it! The local Carrion Crows alerted me to the presence of the bird as I was walking down the Swannery track to work at around eight on Friday morning but unfortunately (and unusually) my camera was still in it's bag at the bottom of my rucksack. I knew that if I'd attempted to retrieve it I'd not only fail to see the bird well but also probably still miss the opportunity to photograph it well too. So at least I had excellent views even if I didn't get a photo. It was over the lower car park when I first picked it up and pursued by a crow it flew right over my head before banking right in front of me and then heading off towards Abbotsbury Hill. It was only then that I managed to extract my camera and rattle off a few shots but it was by then far too distant. Despite tipping off local birders down at the beach and at nearby West Bexington/Cogden it was not seen again until it reached West Bay, Bridport around fifty minutes later and there too it was only a brief fly-by.

Now as I want to give you a feel of the sighting and as I don't have a photo of the Black Kite, or even a photo of a Black Kite, below is an image that work mate Charlie took in Botswana in 2012 of the African form, now recognised as a species in it's own right, Yellow-billed Kite ...




Just imagine it without the yellow bill! Yellow-billed Kite, Botswana 2012
© Charlie Wheeler wheeler-photography

The first Black Kite for The Swannery was in May 1994 which I observed flying over my head while I was strimming around the edge of the Decoy Pond (and which also promptly headed off west). The second was found by local birder Cliff Rogers and his wife Ann in June 1999. This latter bird roamed between Portesham Hill and Abbotsbury Hill before (yet again) flying off west but crucially at one point it was also seen over Chapel Hill where it would have been clearly visible and identifiable from The Swannery (and therefore countable) if only I had been there that day to see it! If I remember rightly I had actually gone to Devon for the day which is rather ironic as it was later seen in Devon too!

The Rest Of The News...

Wilfowl...

No real surprises this week but several Pochard and Gadwall and a few each of Teal and Shoveler were a little unseasonal if not totally unexpected, while the Bar-headed Goose re-appeared and is proving popular with the non-birding visitors as are our first cygnets of the year...
 

 

Some of our first Mute Swan cygnets of the year. © Charlie Wheeler  wheeler-photography
Sorry a bit cutsie I know but I promised our PR colleagues!



Waders & Terns

Sanderlings were seen on the Fleet shoreline of Chesil (opposite) on Monday (one) and today (nine), as were two Ringed Plovers on Saturday - the latter - like the four that flew through the day before were also clearly migrants as we have unfortunately had none nesting here for several years now. Dunlin were not surprisingly regular with a peak of twenty plus at the beginning of the week and Whimbrel peaked at ten plus on Friday. A Greenshank was heard on Tuesday, the day an Avocet was on meadow pool, while  three Turnstones and three (Icelandic) Black-tailed Godwits (the first for several weeks) flew through on Saturday. With no gulls of note it's on to 'sternies' and around twenty pairs of Common Terns appear to have settled on the tern island and are still pulling in a few passing Sandwich Terns but so far this spring no Arctics, Roseates or Blacks! 



The Avocet on the meadow pool...

And while on the subject of pied waders one of the breeding Oystercatchers this week.
We have two pairs nesting again this year.

Migrant Land-birds...

A few more Sedge Warblers arrived this week to join the single remaining singing male from last week and they are now doing their best along with several Cetti's Warblers to out-sing the more numerous Reed Warblers. Several singing Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Whitehroats are on territory too of course but apart from a couple of Wheatears (which by their timing and plumage were presumably Greenland bound), another fly-over Yellow Wagtail and a mere trickle of Swallows, House Martins and Swifts there has been a distinct lack of passage migrants. In fact I still await my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year (despite sightings elsewhere in Abbotsbury) and have resigned myself to having to wait to the autumn now for the likes of Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Garden Warbler and Tree Pipit... but perhaps next week will prove me wrong...and some!

And Finally...



What we believe is a Blue Mint Beetle at The Swannery today.
Apparently a recent colonist from the continent. © Charlie Wheeler  wheeler-photography