Cattle Egret - New lifer and tick for the patch.

Busy weekends have meant that I've missed the large influx of Sandpipers that have been knocking around Dorset this last few weeks. Still, there's always next year...

I visited Longham Lakes on 30th Sep as they were having an open day. It was amazingly bush, with a rammed car park and lots of friendly faces and it was my first chance to catch up with Dominic Cousins, who has been recording birds at Longham since 2002. He was there to take birders around and sell signed copies of his book, A Patch Made In Heaven, which I can recommend.

Just some of the Lapwings resting at Longham. I saw 28 birds, the most I've seen there.

I also met up with George Green who is one of the regular contributors to Longham's bird listings and Martin Wood who had annoyingly seen a Cattle Egret earlier that morning. It's only the third record of the bird since 2002 so it's a real rarity and I hustled off with Alice to find it.

It had been spotted in the rear fields at the back of the causeway but it had long departed when I got there. Crestfallen I headed off with Alice around South Lake, marvelling at the insane amount of birds that were congregating there. I counted close to 30 lapwings and about 50 Canada Geese, along with countless coots and mallards and a fair number of Shoveler. My first sighting of these handsome ducks for the year.

A fair few Shovelers as well as returning Wigeon.

Upon reaching the visitor's centre, Dominic mentioned he needed to take some birders out but was still waiting for Martin to return. I offered to look after his books and gear and chatted to a few other people who were eager to learn more about birds.

Martin returned and within five minutes had a text from Dominic stating the Cattle Egret had returned. Grabbing Alice were virtually ran up the causeway and desperately started scanning the fields. When I couldn't find it Dominic kindly lent me his scope and put me onto the bird.

A record shot of the Cattle Egret. My first ever sighting.

It's a fantastic looking creature with a somewhat stocky build for a small heron and a bright yellow bill. It was picking up food around a small group of cattle and began to attract a small crowd of admirers. Sadly, the bird was extremely far away so I have only strict record shots. It was a delight to see though and I believe it's my first three-pointer for the year.

I'm now on 85 birds for the year.
The Cattle Egret puts my photographed birds for the blog up to 154.

This crop isn't too bad.

A rather harsh crop.

And another of it foraging.

A final shot to highlight just how far away it was.

Last Year's Record Beaten - 78 birds

Well that's not bad, just over halfway through the year and I've beaten last year's record of 73 birds.

Of course it helps that I've been out a lot more this year, but I'm still pleased and there's only the chance it will grow as I pick up more migrants in the Autumn.

Anyway, I headed down to Longham in the hope of seeing the Common Terns that Martin had spotted on the Friday. While they were no longer on the North Lake, the fledgling had moved to one of the buoys on the south lake and I was able to take a few photos of it, as well as the adult fishing.

The juvenile was quite far out, but I'm pleased with this image.

I then met Steve Smith who runs Birding Poole Harbour & Beyond. He was out looking for the Lesser Emperor and other dragonflies and stopped for a little chat about why there had been so much interest this year at Longham for the insects.

The adult landed briefly on the closest buoy, allowing for a nice shot.

Leaving Steve to his search I walked up the causeway seeing the usual Reed Warblers and Reed Buntings, but very little else. There were Coots, Tufted Ducks and Mallards on the North Lake and a large number of Coots and Canada Geese along the back.

Coots and Canada Geese taking it easy.

The island on South Lake was empty aside from a Mute Swan, Lapwing and Grey Heron, so I moved to the back of the lake where I saw 4 Greenfinches, a lone patrolling Kestrel and several more Reed Warblers.

Mute Swan and Grey Heron enjoying the quiet of the South Lake island.

It was otherwise quiet so I headed back along the causeway stopping to take some photos of a Green Woodpecker. As I got to the end of the causeway I heard a commotion in the sky and saw a Sparrowhawk being mobbed by Swallows, my first view of the raptor this year.

Sparrowhawk being mobbed by Swallows. Next time it will hopefully be a Hobby.

I then caught up with Steve who was heading home and Martin, who was just arriving and had watched the Sparrowhawk from the car park.

So I'm now on 78 birds, which beats last year's record by 5. Let's see how many more I can get.

Green Woodpecker on the causeway. The Great Spotted still eludes me.

Massive crop of the Common Tern hunting.

Another heavy crop, but it's an unusual pose which I like.

Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 5

I had a new camera turn up this week, so the weather has been absolutely terrible. I went out anyway, but I am massively unhappy with the quality of what I took on such an overcast day. Most of the issues was that I had it set up completely wrong, so don't be surprised by the poor quality of the images today.

Scanning the carpark yielded Great Tits, but not a lot else. I could hear plenty of birds around, but my id skills are pretty poor and it was far too cold to simply hang around in one place.

Moving to the north lake I was rewarded with a fair sized flock of Pochards, which must have numbered around 15 birds, far more than I saw last time. Carrion Crows and Magpies were in the adjoining fields and there were plenty of Blackbirds and Robins about too. I've still yet to see any House Sparrows, but there was a small number of Goldfinches and Greenfinches flying about.

The back fields were pretty quiet, with just Mute Swans, Herring Gulls and Black-Headed Gulls about. Heading off one of the footpaths I saw a Mistle Thruish skulking around in the undergrowth, but it soon flew off. I had better luck in one of the adjoining fields due to a Common Gull which was grazing with some Black-Headed Gulls.

A Common Gull, out for a stroll.

Walking along the back of the lake rewarded me with Long-Tailed Tits, Blue Tits and another Goldcrest. A couple of Cormorant were fishing and there was a lone Little Egret, which ended up flying over to the south lake.

The south lake was very quiet, with very little on the small island about from Tufted Ducks and Mallards. There were a few Great Crested Grebes and Little Grebes swimming about, but many of the ducks were nowhere to be see. The wood at the back of South Lake was bursting with song, but I struggled to identify anything other than a Great Tit. I did manage to see a lone Stock Dove though, which gave me my second new birds of the day. Oh and while I remember there was a Dunnock skulking around in one of the hedgerows too. There were a lot of Herring Gulls on the south lake and one Lesser Black-Backed Gull, which was another new bird for the patch.

Lesser Black Backed Gull in the foreground.

As I was walking back, I'm convinced I saw a female Reed Bunting but as I couldn't fairly ID it I'm not including it. One thing I do remember is that the back fields had a lot of Cormorants in them. I typically see these birds resting in the pylons there, but never on the actual ground.

That gives me a total of 46 registered birds for the patch now. Hopefully my fellow patcher Martin hasn't seen any new yet :P

Black-Headed Gull
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Carrion Crow
Cormorant
Coot
Dunnock
Gadwell
Goldfinch
Goldcrest
Great Crested Grebe
Greenfinch
Great Tit
Herring Gull
Jackdaw
Kestrel
Little Egret
Little Grebe
Long-Tailed Tit
Magpie
Mallard
Mistle Thrush
Mute Swan
Rrobin
Pochard
Tufted Duck
Wigeon
Wood Pigeon
Wren