Tags
Bearded tit, birding, birdwatching, Black-tailed godwits, British birds, Common tern, Dunlin, Green sandpiper, Lapwing, Little tern, Marsh harrier, RSPB Lodmoor, Wood sandpiper
I wrote in Tuesday’s blog (Egrets, little and large) that I would share in a subsequent post more of the birds I saw during last week’s three visits to RSPB Lodmoor, and here they are. Most were quite distant but I thought it was worth documenting the wide variety of birds that can be seen at this wonderful reserve.
You may struggle to spot the two birds in this photo – they are sitting facing each other on the ‘beach’ area but their colours blend in rather well to the background. In spite of that, this was probably the standout sighting for me, as these are Bearded tits, and, given their sandy colouring, these were probably fledglings, the first ones I’ve seen.
Black-tailed godwit numbers increased from three on my first visit to Lodmoor to eight on my final visit, and numbers will likely continue to increase as these birds return from their breeding grounds in Iceland and continental Europe. You may just be able to spot some smaller birds amongst the shorter reeds in the foreground. These are Dunlin.
I blogged about seeing Breeding Common terns after my June visit to Lodmoor. This time the Common terns had almost all fledged, though one chick remained on one of the breeding platforms and several sat on the sand waiting for their parents to return and feed them. Above you can see two Common terns at the left of the frame but the two terns in the centre of the image are Little terns. These breed, in a specially protected area, on nearby Chesil Beach and, though I saw some there very distantly during my last visit, it was wonderful to see these two at a much closer distance. The birds in the background are a mix of Mediterranean and Black-headed gulls.
How gorgeous is this Lapwing? I think it’s a juvenile bird as it seemed curious rather than scared by my proximity on the path just across from where it was foraging for food, and I had read that Lapwings have bred on the reserve this year.
I was scanning the reeds for anything interesting when this stunning Marsh harrier flew up almost right in front of me. Bushes obscured it from view for a few minutes so I couldn’t get any better photos and, though it did a circuit around the far side of the reserve, it soon disappeared from sight once again.
Last but by no means least are two sandpipers. On the left is a Wood sandpiper, a bird I’d only ever seen once before and, though my picture only shows one, two birds frequented this pool all of last week. This species is only seen in Britain during Spring and Autumn as they move between their breeding grounds in northern Europe and their over-wintering locations in Africa, so I was particularly lucky to have synchronised my visit with their stopover. The bird on the right is a Green sandpiper, another bird I don’t see very often. Though they are known to frequent a river quite near where I live, it’s not a location I can easily access, plus they are very flighty birds, heading for the skies at the slightest suggestion of humans close by.
From Lytchett Fields, it was a short drive to RSPB Arne, an enormous area of woodland and scrub on the western shores of Poole Harbour. Thanks to our knowledgeable team, at Arne I learnt to spot the difference between the holes made in trees by Great spotted and Lesser spotted woodpeckers – not surprisingly, the Great spotted’s hole (on the left) is, well, greater and the Lesser spotted’s (on the right) is smaller – but seeing them side by side was a really useful comparison.
earthstar 
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