Farmoor

Was unsure where to go today so decided to head over to Farmoor as it's always been reasonably good to me, even though it is always freezing cold there....

Surprisingly it was quite devoid of wildfowl in comparison to my previous visits, a quick scan of F2 revealed a pair of Goldeneye and the odd Coot so took a walk along the causeway, had a quick scan of the Tufted Duck and notice 4 Scaup (2 pairs); it's taken me years to see my first Scaup, the first occasion being last year, now since then I have seen them on a regular basis at a number of sites as is typical with bird watching.

Scaup with the Tufted Duck

 

Next up was a male Goldeneye who obviously felt king drake in this pond with his hareem of 6 ducks in tow, not sure if the obvious benefits of 6 women outweigh 6 x nagging? (be in for it with the missus now!), also saw this Cormorant with an extremely white head.

 

 Goldeneye

 

Cormorant

 

Since there didn't appear to be too much on the Reservoir I thought I'd take a look in the Pinkhill Reserve but again not much to see as the whole area was flooded, there were however 4 Snipe skulking about, another bird which has seemed extremely abundant this winter.  Luckily I visited the hide as another birder came in and informed me that they'd just been watching a Barn Owl hunting so of course I headed over and got some fantastic views of it hunting in daylight.

 

 

Barn Owl

 

After watching the Barn Owl for about 10 minutes I walked back to the car via the causeway and managed to see, not a Rock or Water Pipit running up and down the water line but of course a Meadow Pipit, typical.. Then just as I was leaving I got to watch a Great Black Backed Gull fly in, still amazes me just how big they are.

 

Meadow Pipit

 







Bournemouth Visit

Visiting family in Bournemouth over the weekend but misses allowed me to have Saturday off to go geeking, where to go though with so many great sites to choose from?

The weather wasn't that great but I was determined to make the most of it so I started at Upton CP as a Green Winged Teal had been reported for a few days previous.  Luckily for me somebody with a scope put me on as mine is in dire need of an upgrade.  Other birds present were hundreds of Eurasian Teal and Wigeon, there was about 25 Shelduck, 20 Avocet, plenty of Redshank, a Spotted Redshank, a few Oystercatcher and Curlew.  I then popped over to Holes Bay as 3 x Siberian Chiffchaff had been reported, I managed to find two flitting around with a Goldcrest.

Nuthatch

 

 Avocet

 

 Curlew

 

Little Egret

I then headed over to Radipole Lake to see if I could connect with a Marsh Harrier which I successfully did, photo isn't too great I'm afraid but you can make out this female well enough I think?  Was hoping for Bearded Tit and Cetti's Warbler but only managed to hear a Chetti's Warbler.  5 gull species were present; Great Black Backed, Lesser Black Backed, Herring, Common and Black Headed.

 Female Marsh Harrier

 

 Great Black Backed Gull

 

 Lesser Black Backed & Herring Gulls

 

Robin

The plan was then to pop over to Ferrybridge as plenty of Divers and Grebes had been reported but the day had already come to an end, Dorset definately has a great selection of sites, I'll have to plan a weekend there during migration I think, spend some time around Portland.