Birdwatcher’s Diary No. 68

Published on: 15 Aug, 2014
Updated on: 15 Aug, 2014

By Malcolm Fincham

Thanks to the unabated enthusiasm fellow wildlife enthusiast Dougal, before his friend John and I had the chance to even hesitate I found myself booked on a ferry to the Isle of Wight.

Leaving Portsmouth behind and heading for ‘foreign shores’.

This was Sunday August 3, and the trip was in the hope of viewing the rare occurrence in the UK of a pair of European bee- eaters that had decided to nest at Wydcombe Estate on the south side of island.

Being such a rare event, I looked on the internet in the hope of seeing up-to-date photos of these birds by the usual posse of wildlife paparazzi that turn up on such occasions. Click here for more.

And with very few to be seen it left me with only a slender hope of maybe getting a few pictures.

A crowd gathers at Wydcombe Estate on the Isle of Wight.

On arriving at Wydcombe Estate the reasons became more evident as the area had been cordoned off by the National Trust, who were not allowing anyone anywhere near the nest site. Click here for more information.

Our only chance was to watch and wait in the hope that one of the bee-eaters might come into view while out collecting food for its young.

Two hours passed as we patiently waited, with a few of those there having paid good money to travel many a mile and starting to grumble a little that the viewing area was unnecessarily too far from the nest site.

Bee-eater flies overhead.

Then, literally out of the blue (sky) one came into view, shortly followed by a second and both calling as they flew.

Bee-eaters with a sparrowhawk (left) in hot pursuit.

Joy turned rapidly to concern however as a sparrowhawk suddenly appeared and began to chase them.

Bee-eater catching a bee in flight.

Fortunately, they survived the ordeal and settled for a while in a distant dead tree before returning to their nest site with the food they had caught.

Bee-eater make a bee-line for its nest site.

Bee-eater perches before returning to its nest site.

On the Following day I returned to Portsmouth, but this time only as far Farlington Marshes, a nature reserve now familiar to readers of my reports.

Gatekeeper.

Also on the theme of recent reports is my continued recent interest in butterflies, with the most noticeable and easiest to photo in the last week or so being gatekeepers.

Large white.

Large whites could easily be recognised on the wing.

Brimstone – did the name butterfly derive from this beauty.

Along with brimstones, which due to their yellow colour it is widely thought the name butterfly has derived.

On the afternoon of August 10, with my sanity once again called into question by my wife and daughter as they dropped me off at the Moat car park at Thursley Common, rain tipped down in buckets with the tail end of Hurricane Bertha passing through.

It wasn’t long however before the sun returned to the sky giving some stunning views of the heathland.

Redstart on Thursley Common.

It also turned out to be quite a productive visit with views of redstarts flicking their tails and some making their more plaintive late summer call of ‘wheet’.

Whitethroat on Thursley common.

A few families of common whitethroat were also showing well.

Green woodpecker on Thursley Common.

I also caught sight of a spotted flycatcher moving back and forth high in a pine tree and even a green woodpecker as it tried to disguise itself behind a dead branch.

Common lizard at Thursley Common.

As the warmth of the sun began to dry out the ground, mainly young but even a few adult common lizards were tempted back out to bask on the boardwalk.

Young gorse and heather now in flower.

The heathland was certainly at its hight in colour, with young shoots of gorse now recovering from the devastating heathland fire on Thursley Common in 2006. The yellow flowering gorse is now blending with the beautiful purple heather now in full bloom.

Wood sandpiper at Pudmore Pond on Thursley Common.

My best pictures of the day came when I was pleasantly surprised to catch sight of a wood sandpiper, just feet away from the boardwalk on Pudmore Pond, on passage back to Africa. Click to read more about wood sandpipers.

Wood sandpiper.

I was even more pleased that it stuck around long enough for me to frantically load a new battery into my camera as I realised that my camera hadn’t been taking any photos.

Wood sandpiper in flight.

It turned out that eventually I got some of my best ever pictures of a wood sand piper, even capturing a few ‘in flight’ shots as it flew across the pond and then rested on the far bank of the pond.