HarzBirder: Late winter in England's West Country

Rural Dorset is probably one the last places in England where its possible to imagine you are in times long since gone. Beautiful puffed-up hills, bisected by deep and remote coombes bottomed with gin-clear streams where the only sound you might hear is the mewing call of a Buzzard. A coast to die for, containing spectacular cliffs and arches and, in the western part of the county, the Fleet lagoon banked on its seaward side by the gigantic Chesil Beach. Climatically too this part of the world is a bit special with a climate so mild it could have been invented for clotted cream. Everything is more advanced, indicated perhaps most clearly by jaunty daffodils, the first of which we saw braving the cold in early January.

Aunt Mary's Bottom - Dorset

All Saints Church Nether Cerne - Dorset

Durdle Door - Dorset

It being late winter I was here to see predominantly winter resident species likes divers, ducks, geese and waders. However, I was also keen to see a beautiful finch I had last seen 30 years ago in Devon, the Cirl Bunting, even if this would necessitate a bit of travelling. Great Northern and Black Throated Divers are quite common here and can be found on any stretch of sheltered sea. Portland Harbour provides ideal conditions and played host to several Salvonian and Black Necked Grebes, a Black Guillemot and a Great Northern when I called in. Unfortunately the birds were too distant for photographs, bobbing up and down amongst the waves. Some more obliging closer to Red-breasted Mergansers provided better opportunities. Despite coming to these parts on and off all my life, I paid my first proper visit to the Ferrybridge - the point at which the Fleet is connected to the sea. A raft of Mediterranean Gulls, some of which were close to being in summer plumage, were welcome. I remember when this species was national rarity and yet now they can be counted at some local roosts in their high hundreds. A fantastic white-winged gull set off with a spanking black hood and heavy red bill. Some Brent Geese were mulling around on the far shore. Just as was about to leave a Skylark dropped in before flying off in the direction of Portland. What a beautiful and brave little bird.

Mediterranean Gulls - Ferrybridge

Brent Geese - Ferrybridge

Skylark - Ferrybridge

The waters of the Fleet lagoon are tidal, being filled and partially emptied by the ebb and flow of the tide under the Ferrybridge and into Portland Harbour. The lagoon, which is 11 kilometers long, is also fed by a series of streams along its landward side meaning that the water is brackish. As the water surges in, the ever diminishing amount of mud forces feeding birds up the Fleet and eventually into Rodden Hive. So getting the tide right is important. Today I arrived on time but, because the day's high tide wasn't particularly high, there weren't a large number of birds to see. A couple of Long-tailed Ducks swimming with Red-breasted Mergansers, Widgeon, Pintail and Shovellers were great to see, especially since the former tend to hide in the inaccessible Abbotsbury end of the lagoon. On the wader front there were plenty of Redshanks and some Dunlin, some gulls, the pick of which were two Mediterranean, some Oystercatchers and a Little Egret. Not bad, but I've seen better here.

Lesser Black Backed Gull - Rodden Hive

Red-breasted Merganser - Rodden Hive

Redshanks and Oystercatchers - Rodden Hive

Tufted Ducks and Teals - Rodden Hive

The beautiful Cirl Bunting was formally widespread throughout England but in the second half of the 20 Century began to decline drastically so that by the turn of the Century its remnant population was restricted to a narrow coastal strip in Devon. The Cirl Bunting is mainly a Mediterranean species and is at the northern limit of its range in the UK. Fortunately, intense conservation measures, concentrating on the introduction of less intensive farming techniques, have enabled a substantial increase in the bird's numbers. Whilst it now numbers about 800 breeding pairs, its expansion more widely throughout Devon and more into neighbouring Cornwall and Dorset, has been frustratingly slow. Thanks to active intervention, Cirl Buntings now breed in Cornwall, but we patiently await their return to Dorset.

Labrador Bay RSPB reserve - south of Teignmouth in Devon

Male Cirl Bunting - Labrador Bay

Female Cirl Bunting - Labrador Bay

Stepping out the car at Labrador Bay RSPB reserve, I immediately heard a Cirl Bunting signing - spring can't be too far away! Walking into the reserve I quickly found a flock of about 40 birds feeding on seeds deliberately left in a stubble field. The sun was out and the birds obliging flying up into trees affording wonderful views. With them, but not amongst them, a similar sized flock of Linnets were also feeding. One could not help have a sense of how rural Britain must have looked before the era of intensive farming, capable of supporting large flocks of formally common species. I last saw Cirl Buntings about 20 years ago and so it was wonderful to watch this emblematic species again in its natural habitat.

Wren - Labrador Bay

Dunnock - Labrador Bay

Linnets - Labrador Bay

The Isle of Portland is a mythical place - reliant for many years on quarrying and the military - it is linked to the mainland by the Ferrybridge and juts 6 kilometers into the western approaches. Its position makes it a magnet for migratory sea birds both passing its southerly tip - the Bill - and for passerines and raptors using it as a spring board for the 100 kilometer crossing to France. Today I was accompanied by an old friend and we spent as much time catching up and making plans for the future as we did birding. Birds today were few though our passage was livened by some smart Rock Pipits, a majestic Peregrine, some Stonechats and a small amount of sea traffic off the Bill. It didn't matter really as I cast my eyes east and west along Dorset's spectacular coast. In a few weeks the first Wheatears and Chiffchaffs will be making their eternal landfall before passing inland to their breeding grounds. Today was more about reflection and reminiscing about all the wonderful times we had had on this magical island.

Rock Pipit - Portland Bill

Peregrine Falcon - Western cliffs Portland

Stonechat - Portland

Guillemot - Portland Bill

Black-necked or Slavonian Grebe - Portland Harbour

Poole Harbour is one of the largest natural harbours in the world, It is a fantastic place for watching birds, especially in winter, as they feed on the abundant supply of fish and invertebrates within the mudflats and slat marshes. There are dozens of locations from which to watch birds to choose from and the area includes the famous RSPB reserve of Arne - home to Dartford Warblers amongst other things. My favourite vantage point is the Avocet Hide at Middlebere. From here I have seen wonderful spectacles involving hundreds of Avocets, spring-time Ospreys, Hen and Marsh Harriers, raiding Peregrines and Merlins and many more species besides. Like Rodden Hive, or indeed any coastal location, arriving just before high tide is vital. Middlebere at low tide is hardly worth a visit.

Map extract of Poole Harbour in Dorset.

And today the tide was out - I knew it would be but I had no choice as I was travelling east towards London for the night before heading to the Continent the next morning. Notwithstanding, I hoped to see a harrier or Merlin and of course there is always the chance of turning up something unusual. Never was Robert Louis Stevenson's famous dictum 'To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive' truer as I saw very little except for some good looking Dark-bellied Brent Geese, a solitary Canada Goose, some Curlews, Shellduck and a handful of distant Teals. Never mind, it was great just to sit snuggly in the hide, sheltered from the wind and rain reminiscing about times gone by. As I left I could not help but notice the hawthorn leaf coming out - bright green against the monochrome late afternoon light. A sure harbinger of spring.