Arne, Dorset. A Wonderful RSPB Reserve and another bird for the year list

Wednesday 3rd February fresh to strong W sunny intervals, 9C

The cycle ride from Weymouth to Arne is a delight with a strong wind at my back and empty roads with high quality tarmac. It is going to be a great day; I can feel it in my bones.

I feel excited as I approach Arne along a lane from Stoborough. This is one of my top five favourite RSPB reserves with beautiful heathland and woodland habitats beside estuarine arms of Poole Harbour, the World's second largest natural harbour.

After having cycled through some thick smoke coming from an area being cleared of old conifers, more restoring of the original heathland habitat, I reach the reserve and go to the small visitor's reception block. There I meet Luke and Chris, RSPB staff and soon, after stowing the bike away safely, I am off speedily walking to an area where I am hoping to see my first target bird of the day, Dartford warbler.

Reaching the area of thick gorse, the exact place where I saw dartford warbler last year, I search and listen for this superb small bird. The wind is still very strong and after an hour or so I still haven't seen or heard one.

I stand near to some gorse that looks particularly suitable and take out a chocolate bar for lunch. Then I hear something; a small, scratchy sub song. It sounds as if it is coming from quite a way away. I am therefore very surprised when a male dartford warbler pops up out of the gorse about ten feet away. It moves unconcerned by my presence amongst the gorse for a few minutes. 

Then a female pops her head up too. I get such fantastic views and so close as I stand stock still and watch them exploring the gorse.

New bird for the year and the important one from the three target birds for the day, as there would have been only be a few opportunities of seeing one, being restricted to the heathlands of mostly Southern England. No matter, it is on the list. Brilliant.

I walk down to the small cliffs from where one can look over to Long Island and beyond to the ferry crossing at Studland. The tide is receding and four spoonbills are quite distant out on the mud that starts the Middlebeare channel. There are also a fair number of avocets and curlew here. In the distance to the south I can see the famous ruins of Corfe Castle. This was blown up by Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War after he captured it from the Royalist army. I take a photograph as a flock of Brent Geese are flying in front of it.

Through the large woodland and along the side of some large fields, a sign of how benign this Winter is is that there are no Winter thrushes on the grass and no finches either. Usually in a normal, cold Winter there would be hundreds of both.

Also missing are the large herds of Sika, a specie of large deer. They have obviously been culled to protect the habitats.

Back to the Visitor's Centre, which is soon to be replaced by a much larger one, hopefully by Easter, I meet Rob. Now Rob is another RSPB staff member and last year we had a fabulous day birding Arne together.

I head off for Middlebeare where the National Trust has a hide that overlooks the other end of the Middlebeare Channel from where I was earlier in the day. This sued to be one of my favourite birding places when I used to live in nearby Swanage and holds great memories for me. I haven't been here for around ten years and I am surprised at how high the trees have grown around the hide. The view across the muddy channel looks the same though with the curling dyke down the centre viewable because of it being low tide. I am hoping a hen harrier will go past and that the resident barn owl will put in a showing.

By dark neither have been seen but there have been a number of spotted redshanks and spoonbills. Little egrets and brent geese so life is good.

Year list still at 148, nineteen ahead of this time last year.

27.87 miles 1187 feet elevation up 1210 feet elevation down

Hill after Hill to get to an American Duck

Monday 1^st February          fresh to strong W     sunny intervals,                                                                   occasional light rain 13C

There is a report of a green-winged teal at Seaton, Devon which is around twenty miles from where I am at present. With the bike ready I start the cycle. This part of Devon is very hilly and the day seems to be one long push up steep hill after steep hill and the going is tough and exhausting.

Through Budleigh Salterton, through Sidmouth and after a particularly steep and long hill climb, I reach a main road with a turn off for Beer.

Unfortunately a lack of road signs takes me down to Branscombe from which to get back on the right road for Beer there is yet another steep hill.

Beer, I find the youth hostel there and leave the panniers and sleeping bag. With an unladen bike the ride over to Seaton is not that bad and I find the reserve upon which the rare American bird has been seen.

A birder carrying a telescope comes up to me saying that we met on Shetland back in 2010. His name is Tony and together we search for the teal. I find it whilst peering through some tall reeds. Great, green-winged teal goes onto the year list, yet another really good bird; a great start to February.

Year list goes to 147, eighteen ahead of this time last year.

18.66 miles 1993 feet elevation up 1869 feet elevation down

Last Day of the First Month - Exmouth

Sunday 31st January fresh to strong W cloudy AM sunny intervals PM 13C

The final day of the first month starts at Bowling Green RSPB reserve near Topsham. Waders in large numbers are coming in from off the estuary as high tide approaches. Black-tailed godwits number around 800 with a few bar-tailed with them. There are also a couple of hundred avocet and smaller numbers of dunlin and redshank. They all take off together when first a sparrowhawk flies along a hedgreow and then a female merlin does likewise.

I still need to find the Bonaparte's gull and with the weather nothing like the heavy rain forecast I cycle to Exmouth. Along the way another cyclist, Max joins me and we cycle together for a couple of miles. He talks of his job and of his two young children.

I spend a few hours along the seafront in Exmouth checking every gull as the tide recedes.

There are very few gulls though and around 4:30pm I head off for a nearby country hostel. Reaching it I am greeted by two Midlanders acting as managers of the complex. One has a coffee in her hand which is in an Aston Villa mug, my own football team sadly.

11.12 miles 497 feet elevation up 430 feet elevation down

So the day ends. Monthly statistics:-

Green Year list 146 birds

Number of birds not seen in 2015 3

Mileage 723.56 miles

average mileage on days cycled 27.83 miles

elevation up 40,184 feet

elevation down 40,344

best birds :

great white egret x 10

hoopoe

grey phalarope

lesser scaup

cattle egret

glossy ibis

American wigeon

smew

Red-necked grebe

great northern diver x 22

Firecrest  x 2

Black-throated diver x 6

Ring-billed gull

Rose-coloured starling

slavonian grebe

A Wader and An Owl, Exe Estuary, Devon.

Saturday 30th January fresh W sunny, short shower PM

To Teignmouth seafront and a search for the Bonaparte's gull I missed earlier in the month first today. The tide is high and the sun is shining; such a contrast to yesterday.

No sign of the gull, lots of herring gulls.

Same again at Dawlish, I continue to Dawlish Warren and after seeing nothing other than two great-crested grebes and a single great northern diver on the sea, I continue around to the bay by the hide. Waders are still roosting there due to the high tide and amongst a fair number of oystercatchers and curlew are some bar-tailed godwits.

I walk all around the point opposite Exmouth and back along the beach, picking up plastic rubbish as I go.

Golden syrup on chips, actually quite nice, are bought from Chippy Chaps Fish Bar by the railway tunnel and eaten for lunch. An unusual combination I know but it seems to work when vinegar is added.

stonechat

Along the excellent Exe Estuary cycle path once more, the weather is beautiful if a bit colder than of late. Just north of Exminster Marshes RSPB reserve's car park I see a woman with raised binoculars on the pathway above the level of the cycle path. I ask here if she has seen the reported short-eared owl and she tells me that it is in the field in front of us. The bird is obscured by a large hawthorn bush from my view but I soon have a sight of it.

The woman's name is Helen Hawke and she asks me how I am getting on as she saw me on Springwatch last year and knows of my quest. She asks a young coouple to take a photograph of us both and puts some money as a donation into the charity box. Thanks Helen.

To Matford Marsh RSPB reserve next but I can't see the dodgy small Canada goose. I had been warned that it is difficult to see as it stays amongst the bullrush and sedges.

Late in the afternoon I reach Topsham and Bowling Green RSPB reserve. The water level of the pools in front of the hide is a lot lower than when I was here previously and duck numbers are reduced.

As darkness falls I nsider how superb the Exe Estuary is for Green Birding. It has a superb cycle track around it's perimeter, some fabulous RSPB reserves with masses of birds, particularly brent geese and waders, the latter amass at Bowling Green when the tide is high. Then there is Dawlish Warren and it's dune system and the sea. Nearby there are woodland and hedgerows with cirl buntings amongst the commoner birds. Altogether it is the perfect area for a great day cycling and birding.

The Green Year list now stands at 146, seventeen more than this time last year.

21.69 miles 905 feet elevation up 884 feet elevation down

Plymouth to Teignmouth. Wettest day of the year so far.

Friday 29th January         fresh to strong W

heavy rain or thick drizzle

I don't know why but a really enjoyable cycling day. The weather is appalling; heavy rain or thick drizzle and a strong westerly wind just to make sure I am soaked. There are no views of the beautiful hilly Devon landscape as it is all lost in the cloud and mist yet I really enjoyed the day. The only wildlife of note was, sadly a dead dunnock beside a cycle path.

I reached Totnes, then Newton Abbott and finally Teignmouth where the Potter's More Hotel had an attic room with a view over to the sea.

Showered, rehydrated and relaxed.

33.87 miles 2419 feet elevation up 2653 feet elevation down

St Austell to Plymouth!

Thursday 28th January fresh W sunny AM, sunny intervals & light showers PM

A day of cycling to get beyond Plymouth ahead of me, I set off on the cycle – push route from St Austell to Plymouth. The morning is sunny and the sky cloudless. It is so warm that a painted lady butterfly flutters towards me across the road. I beg it to land and it almost does, on my bike but it heads off over a tall hedge.

Before Liskeard I see a group of eight ravens circling together and further along the road a flock of around twenty fieldfare fly over. Winter thrushes have been very thin on the ground.

Hill after hill, the road is a tough one with few opportunities for cycling any prolonged stretch. That changes at Liskeard where I go on the A38. The next ten miles whizz past.

The ride through Plymouth to get to the house of a great friend, Lee's Mum and Dad, Lynn and Alan, is up and down again and complicated. Luckily down one stretch of road I am alert as someone has taken the heavy metal grill of a drain hole and there is a deep chasm left in the road!

The evening is spent in the fine company of Lee and his girlfriend Kate as well as Lynn and Alan. A family meal up to a table is the first one I have had for years and much appreciated. A fabulous evening spent with lovely company.

43.36 miles 3838 feet elevation up 3830 feet elevation down

Penultimate Day in Cornwall

Wednesday 27th January Gale easing to strong W Early fog, cloudy occasional light rain

In the hide at Stithians I wait for the fog to lift. The slavonian grebe is still here and comes quite close. 

A party of a dozen or so long-tailed tits are in the bushes next to the hide when suddenly the fog disappears and I can see the opposite shore of the large lake. I am already packed and ready to go.

The day is a mixture of pedalling and pushing as I come across hill after hill along this Cornish road.

I pass through the city of Truro with its prominent cathedral and push on, literally, towards St Austell. I reach there and find the public house I stayed in last year. The bike is stowed away in the same place and I have the same expansive room overlooking the local church with its interesting small statues on the clock tower. I had forgotten that the church bells ring loudly every quarter hour.

26.10 miles 2076 feet elevation up 2388 feet elevation down

A Day confined in a Birding Hide, Stithians.

Tuesday 26th January Gale force W (55mph) 12C very heavy rain all day

It doesn't take long to see the slavonian grebe once daylight returns. Last night's clear, star-filled sky has been replaced by thick low cloud and it is raining hard. The promised gale, the remnants of the storm that dumped over two feet of snow on the Eastern USA killing so many, has arrived this side of the Atlantic and the weather is truly foul outside the confines of the C.B.W.P.S. (Cornwall Bird & Wildlife Preservation Society) hide.

The slavonian grebe, a bird that takes me to 144, is quite distant and after texting the news I am unsure that I did see it as a little grebe extends its neck before flying closer. I did see the bright white cheeks didn't I? Scanning again I cannot see a slav'.

Half an hour later the slavonian grebe comes closer and I get photos and a short thirty second video as it bobs up and down on the sea-like swell.

With no intention of cycling in this squall; it would be suicidal to even try, I settle down in my sleeping bag and read and watch. Birds are few and far between; four little grebe occasionally come close catching small sticklebacks and the occasional gull lands on the water to preen. 

A male goldeneye stays around in front of the hide for an hour or so.

The book is called Austerity by Kerry-Anne Mendoza and details the current obscenity of Neo-liberalism and the destruction of all that I hold dear; education, NHS, the Justice system and social compassion.

The other book I have with me is by Roz Savage and is the story of her rowing across the Atlantic. She is eloquent and intelligent and the read is inspirational. “If one is going to be outside one's comfort zone then expect things to be uncomfortable.” I'm wrapped up and cosy in this small bird hide.

Midday, rain and wind still battering the water, I am joined in the hide by Jim, a birder from Newquay. Together we watch as the slavonian grebe swims very close by and a firecrest is seen to the right of the hide; my second of the year.

The Green Year list now stands at 144, twenty ahead of where I was at this time last year.

A Change of Direction Leads me to a Rose-Coloured Starling

Monday 25th January Strong SW to W 13C cloudy, some light drizzle, suddenly sunny PM

The day starts with a decision to get a tooth sorted. A bargain of two Fry's Turkish delight bars for £1 had me chewing one yesterday and on swallowing I found a large hole in a bottom left molar. Now I have had problems with this particular tooth for ages and my dentist had said that the next time she sees me she will have to take it out under a general anaesthetic. Last year it was this tooth that first had an abscess and then got cracked even further by a pip inside a chocolate raisin.

Eleven o' clock and I am at a NHS dentist in Penzance. Twelve o'clock the tooth has been cleaned and fixed with a temporary filling. I have to make an appointment with my dentist for the full removal asap as the x-ray shows the extent of the infection below the root. Strange it hasn't caused me any pain at all since the abcess was treated with antibiotics.

On the road again, the day's original plan of trying to see garganey and water pipit at Hayle has changed with the news that the rose-coloured starling has been seen again at The Lizard.

Through Marazion and along to Helston I cycle, past a few fields of flowering daffodils. The final ten miles is into the wind. Reaching The Lizard village I start to search by walking the streets, looking at every starling group. I consider getting a bed & breakfast as the weather forecast for tomorrow is of fifty five mph gales with heavy rain.

Forty five minutes of searching I look up and the nearest starling of a small group on telegraph wires is the rosy! It pops down closer onto a hawthorn bush in a garden and gives views that are so much better than last year's bird. In 2015 I had the briefest of views of a superb adult to which this one is dull in comparison. Watching it for the next half hour I wonder when the full pink plumage of a breeding bird comes into play. The other common starlings look spnagly in the sun yet the rosy looks greyish-white on the parts that I expected to be shocking pink. Still it is another year tick and a very good one to get.

 

There are still a couple of hours of light left in the day and I decide to cycle to Stithians Lake to try to get the Slavonian grebe before the bad weather arrives.

Two hours later, the sun having gone down, I ask a lady for dirctions instead of looking at the map on my phone. Two miles later, after hurtling downhill for quite some way, I realise that she has sent me to the village, not the lake. A large village sign Stithians tells me so.

Back up the hill I push as darkness falls. I reach the lake with it too dark to see anything and a very close tawny owl hoots it's derision.

The Green Year list now stands at 143, nineteen ahead of where I was at this time last year.

46.60 miles 2545 feet elevation up 2180 feet elevation down

Cornish Chough and Cornish Birders

Sunday 24th January Strong S 13C cloudy, misty then suddenly sunny PM

A group of young Indian students from Delhi are taking photographs of each other as I pass by to collect the bike from the shed. They ask me to take one of them all together and I joke that they should have the photograph taken in the field of daffodils, Big Fish-style. Despite the mud they agree and so half an hour is spent amongst the daffs.

To Sancreed again to try and get better views of the ring-billed gull, I arrive to find once again, no gulls. Waiting and searching for almost an hour I do see a pair of peregrines but no ring-billed. 

Another cycling birder arrives, Alex and he tells me that the Iceland gull has been seen recently at a farm along the Pendeen road. Alex also says that the best place to see chough is at Kenidjack.

The wind is sometimes coming from my side, sometimes behind me and I reach the ploughed field suggested by Alex to find it devoid of any birds.

I carry on down to Kenidjack and am thrilled to find a number of chough in the alley by the sewage works. There are a few flying around loosely connected to jackdaw and rook flocks. A couple land on a nearby derelict and ruined mine building. One has a number of rings on it's legs.

Having successfully found and seen chough well, unlike back in 2015 when the BBC Cornwall presenter had nailed me with the question of whether I had seen Cornish chough. I hadn't. So with them on the year list, celebrating what could have been a tricky bird if I hadn't had them here, I cycle to Mousehole to try for gulls; an Iceland gull was reported yesterday.

First stop is Newlyn Harbour where a very close great northern diver is seen. 

Two Cornish birders tell me that the juvenile glaucous gull is just off the beach nearby and it sure is. Large and pale, the glaucous stands out amongst the smaller herring gulls.

To Mousehole I stop for a while beside an allotment where the owner has created a number of figures using whatever materials have come to hand.

Sitting on the rocks beside the car park in Mousehole I add gannet and fulmar to the year list. There are small parties of auks passing and a number of kittiwakes also.

A friendly local birder with an amazing Deputy Dog-looking hat comes up, Paul Semmens, and together we search for the gull as he talks about his work in monitoring cetaceans in the area. Paul says he sees around two and a half cetaceans over a year, mostly porpoise and dolphins with the occasional whale.

We move around a small headland and meet another two birders Chris and the famous Mashuq. All week whenever I have met Cornish birders they have told me that Mashuq is the gull expert for the county.

Mashuq finds a white winger, possibly the Iceland but half of it is hidden by the rocks. Chris lets me have a look and following their directions I find the bird, seeing a pale mantle and head; the latter looking smaller and rounder than a glaucous head would be. Half an Iceland, it doesn't go onto year list and as darkness falls and after saying goodbye to one and all, I head back to the youth hostel.

The Green Year list now stands at 142, eighteen ahead of where I was at this time last year.

23.93 miles 1568 feet elevation up 1594 feet elevation down

An American Gull onto the List

Saturday 23rd January Strong SW 13C cloudy then rain

Out towards Sancreed, I arrive there expecting to see lots of gulls in the fields around Trennack farm. There are none. A few herring gulls fly over. I wait.

10:30am a lone gull flies around and lands briefly, very briefly. Then takes off to fly around and land briefly once more. Hence I get pretty poor views of the 1^st winter ring-billed gull, an American gull looking rather lost despite the fact that it has been coming to these same fields for a number of days.

The day, which had been rather blowy and dry, descends into one of rain and fog. I decide to bird any copse or woodland on the way back to Penzance instead of spending the day searching for chough around St Just and Land's End.

The Green Year list now stands at 139, fifteen ahead of where I was at this time last year.

6.87 miles 564 feet elevation up 578 feet elevation down