Blue Monday... Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...

Swannery Birding Highlights Of The Week...

Monday 20th to Sunday 26th January 2014...  



So Monday was supposed to be the most depressing day of the year... I don't know about that but it has to be said that the birding was pretty sad all week, with yet again mild, wet and windy conditions prevailing and even when the sun did shine the birding didn't!

 

There was no sign of last week's Jack Snipe or Firecrest (although I did connect with a couple of the latter on a quick trip over to the Sub-Trop. Gardens) and there was nothing of real note 'new in' either.

 

Wildfowl...

'Best of' were the Scaup, with all eight still present and a single settled Dark-bellied Brent Goose, while it was also nice to see a few Wigeon back after a week or so. Otherwise numbers and variety were much as last week.

 

Seven of the eight (Greater) Scaup along with a couple of female (Common) Pochard.
The Scaup 'flock' consists of 4 adult drakes, 2 1st winter drakes and 2 1st winter ducks.



Waders...

As already stated there was no sign of last week's Jack Snipe among the few Common Snipe nor any sign of last week's Golden Plover among the dwindling Lapwing though a Dunlin was the first for awhile. Otherwise there was just a few Redshank and a single Oystercatcher.

 

Gulls...

Despite the continued presence of the adult Glaucous Gull off The Chesil (ranging between Chesil Cove and Cogden Beach) it yet again failed to reappear at The Swannery, so the only 'white-wingers' I could come up with among all the usual species were several, now virtually expected, double figure flocks of 'Meds'.

 

Raptors...

It was rather quiet in this category too with the regular male Marsh Harrier the only 'BoP' of note (excepting the escaped Harris's Hawk of course).

 

Passerines...

I'm really struggling with this category too, I haven't even seen or heard a Chiffchaff this week for instance, although the number of common songsters in full voice grew even more, adding to the spring like conditions.

 

As to other land-birds the AWOL immature male Golden Pheasant continues to visit The Grove but there has been no sign of the Lady Amherst's for a few weeks now.

I'll leave you with further evidence of the coming spring...

 

The first Snowdrops of the year in The Swannery withybed.



 

'A Jack And A Jewel'

Swannery Birding Highlights Of The Week...

Monday 13th to Sunday 19th January 2014...  



It was another week of mostly heavy blustery showers, strong winds and high tides, not ideal for birding and as a consequence it was rather quiet on the bird front. There were a couple of nice surprises in the week however and today the winds dropped, the showers held off and even the sun came out. Unfortunately though the strong light didn't help with today's WeBS count. 
 

Wildfowl...

The totals for today's January WeBS for wildfowl on The Fleet at Abbotsbury are... Mute Swan 387; Canada Goose 44; Shelduck 11; Gadwall 4; Teal 250; Mallard 263; Pintail 5; Shoveler 39; Pochard 315; Tufted Duck 209; Scaup 6; Goldeneye 12; Red-breasted Merganser 21. So in the prevailing mild and wet conditions numbers are not surprisingly rather low but there were twice as many Teal earlier in the week and the eight Scaup (plus the hybrid) have been present all week (and probably were today but the light hindered our attempts to pick them all out) but note the lack of Wigeon. The only additional species in the week was Brent Goose with twelve 'dark-bellies' settled briefly in the embayment on Monday.

 



Drake (Eurasian) Teal in the water meadow.
The one on the left is a first winter.





One of the eight (Greater) Scaup (a drake) with (Common) Pochards.



Miscellaneous Water Birds...

The totals for today's January WeBS for other water birds on The Fleet at Abbotsbury are... Little Grebe 7; Great Crested Grebe 7; Cormorant 2; Little Egret 3; Grey Heron 1; Moorhen 12; Coot 620; Kingfisher 1. There is not really anything to add to this tally for the week except for the odd Water Rail glimpsed or more frequently heard.

 

Waders...

The totals for today's January WeBS for waders on The Fleet at Abbotsbury are... Golden Plover 1; Lapwing 160; Redshank 16. In addition in the week there was an Oystercatcher and a paltry number of Snipe, making the discovery of my first Jack Snipe of this winter even more surprising.

 

Gulls...

The totals for today's January WeBS for gulls on The Fleet at Abbotsbury are.. Black-headed Gull 300; Mediterranean Gull 14; Common Gull 200; Herring Gull 100; Great Black-backed Gull 5. A pretty representative tally for the week but in addition there were a few Lesser Black-backs and a couple of Kittiwakes... 

 



A rather poor shot of a first winter (Black-legged) Kittiwake
over the Aythya (Diving Duck) flock...

 

And the same  (Black-legged) Kittiwake close in during a feed.
It was so hungry that it was taking wheat!

 

Raptors...

I can't actually recall seeing any Sparrowhawks or Kestrels this week but Buzzards were plentiful as usual, a Peregrine put in at least one appearance but highlight was again the continued presence of the male Marsh Harrier, whilst the escaped Harris's Hawk continues to help keep our rat population down.  

 

Passerines...

Seeing as there are very few Goldcrests around the first Firecrest since early November was a  real gem of a find on a dreary day. The only other passerine worthy of note was Siskin with at least two joining the more regular finches around the Alders. On the few occasions the sun did shine a growing list of early songsters included Nuthatch and Treecreeper two species that are only sporadic breeders at The Swannery, so fingers crossed for the spring!
 



The view from Berry Knapp, looking west during the WeBS this morning.



 

 

 

More Storm Birds

Swannery Birding Highlights Of The Week...

Monday 6th to Sunday 12th January 2014...  



Despite being back at work after the Xmas & New Year break and therefore spending more time on the patch, I didn't manage to get much birding in.

The stormy weather continued for the first couple of days and so it was displaced seabirds that again featured highly. Several Kittiwakes were still around, some looking decidedly weak (or worst still, oiled).


Adult Kittiwake in The Swannery embayment.




Another two adult Kittiwakes also on The Fleet.



More unusual on the lagoon though was a Guillemot (more or less annual) and even more so a Razorbill (less than five Swannery records during my tenure).

The Kittiwakes had plenty of other larids for company but the only other species of any note were fifty plus Mediterranean Gulls most days.

Wildfowl numbers were still rather low but highlights were the eight Scaup still and a single settled Dark-bellied Brent Goose.

Waders were poorly represented with relatively few Lapwings, very few Snipe, a few Redshanks and a single Oystercatcher.


The male Marsh Harrier is still present but the local crows had something else to pester this week in the form of an escaped Harris's Hawk...



A rather poor shot of the Harris's Hawk.
Presumably the bird I saw over nearby Portesham a couple of months back.

There is nothing much to report on the passerine front either with the only 'new in' species being Siskin and Bullfinch (both having been absent for a month or so) but also perhaps worthy of note is the continued presence of at least one over-wintering Chiffchaff.


So Razorbill excepted a pretty poor week but as it is the WeBS count next week then at least expect a fuller report then... I hope!

  

Storm Birds

Swannery Birding Highlights Of The Week...

Monday 30th December 2013 to Sunday 5th January 2014...  



I was still on leave this week but I did manage to get down to The Swannery most days. It was often just a case of feeding the swans and then heading for home however, having got soaked to the skin on more than one occasion. The few times I did endeavour to have a good look around it was hard work with the paths and even the hides being awash and very little to show for my efforts. The best day was Wednesday with the high winds forcing a Fulmar, a Kittiwake and a Shag to settle on the lagoon. Fulmar and Kittiwake are just about annual at The Swannery, although the former rarely settles, while Shag is something of a rarity on The West Fleet (though after several years absence there was one during the gales back in the autumn).





This was supposed to be a photo of a Kittiwake (it's there somewhere honest!) . I took it from inside Helen Hide with the waves breaking over the tops of my wellies! You might not be able to see the Kittiwake but at least it gives a bit of an idea of what conditions were like this week (if you didn't already know!).



A flock of forty plus Dark-bellied Brent Geese on the shoreline on Thursday was unusual this far up The Fleet but it was a bit too much to hope that they may have been harbouring a Black Brant, which despite being virtually annual on The Fleet these days is still absent from The Swannery bird list.
 

Before the really heavy rain set in there were still good numbers of dabbling duck but by the end of the week these had dispersed with the flooding providing plentiful feeding opportunities elsewhere. There were still several hundred Pochard and Tufted Duck though and these still held the eight Scaup but there was no sign of the Long-tailed Duck.

 

There was also no more sign of last week's large white-winged gull at The Swannery, despite it still being in the general area. Following some debate as to whether it was an Iceland or a Glaucous Gull it has now been identified as the latter so (based on previous Swannery occurrences) not such a bad one to miss after all and who knows, I might still catch up with it next week.

  



Passerines have been largely keeping their heads down this week but in the mild (if wet) conditions it was nice to see the occasional Redwing.



So after a two week break (bar feeding) it's back to work tomorrow so ironically more time in the field, although listening to the week's weather forecast I don't know whether I'll be seeing that much more than this week!