Quiet morning, Chobham Common

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Not all trips are eventful, and this morning was one of the quietest I've had in a while. I spent a couple of hours wandering through Chobham Common looking for adders with #1 daughter. No sign of any adders, or much else - there were few birds about, with the highlights being singing skylarks and chiffchaff, a solitary reed bunting and a buzzard passing overhead. I only took one shot - this is the foam produced by the water passing through the peaty soil, and I liked the pattern enough to convert it to monochrome.

Hairy-footed flower bee

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Spring is in full force in the garden for the last week or two, with queen bumblebees hunting for nest sites, the first solitary bees are already foraging, and today, my first swallow of the year dashed overhead.



The hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes; click any for larger) is an early flying solitary bee, which usually appears here in mid-March, and is last seen in early May. This is a male - the females are black. Three loudly buzzing males were patrolling along the patio edge, skirmishing when they came close together. They are rarely still, with flight behaviour that recalls an over-caffeinated hoverfly.

More ringing

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Another early start, and a misty, cold Spring morning for an excellent ringing session. My first sand martins of the year flew overhead as we set up the nets, and by the end of the day we had a good haul, including bullfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, blue, great and long-tailed tit, song thrush and chiffchaff. The highlights were three very vocal great spotted woodpeckers (Dendrocopos major) which had hit one net together, and best of all - a fine treecreeper (Certhia familiaris; click either for larger).




We finished off at lunchtime and I dropped into Lavell's for a quick look before heading to work. Plenty of ducks around, including this gadwall (Anas strepera). A water rail (Rallus aquaticus; click either for larger) foraged under the feeders, providing a good ending to the morning's efforts.

Pagham Harbour, West Sussex

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Not all days can be full of birding excitement - yesterday I had a quietish day in Pagham Harbour, and the light was terrible for photography. I started at dawn at Church Norton, which was full of bird song, including chiffchaffs and a distant skylark, and a buzzard flew overhead mobbed by carrion crows. There was a few redshank (Tringa totanus; click for larger) foraging on the bare mudflats, and further out a mix of black-tailed godwit, curlew, knot, dunlin, oystercatcher and grey plover pottered about. I first headed towards the shingle to look for wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe; click for larger), and quickly picked up a pair, but neither allowed close approach. The Severals held a few noisy Cetti's warblers, and as I wandered back a very chunky sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus; its size initially convinced me I had a male goshawk - apologies for the rubbish image) headed out to sea, circled a few times and was lazily mobbed by a greater black backed gull. It then decided that it was time to hunt, and headed straight back to shore, initially straight towards me and then off to the side, where it powered through the trees.





I moved on to the Sindlesham side, where a lone avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta; click for larger) preened at the edge of the lagoon, while a decent sized flock of wigeon grazed in the fields nearby. A walk along the saltmarsh produced little of interest. Returning to the visitors centre produced a mix of common passerines, including great tit (Parus major) and blackbird (Turdus merula; click either for larger).





I then headed home, stopping off at Budd's Farm to see what was about - the usual cast of waterfowl and gulls were present, along with an odd looking duck - I assume a pochard x ferruginous duck? I've had a serious hunt (well - I spent five minutes googling) for anything that looks similar, and have failed - the head colour and white under tail coverts suggest fudge duck, and the rest is very 'pochardy'. Anyone who knows better out there?!

EDIT: The new Collins has a nice spread of hybrids - a pochard x ferruginous duck hybrid it is.



Small numbers of brent geese (Branta bernicla; click for larger) dotted Langstone Harbour, along with red-breasted mergansers and a few wigeon. As I called it a day, a kestrel hunted overhead, and the second buzzard of the day was mobbed by several carrion crows - at least there was a sort of symmetry to it all...

Bufflehead and other Dorset birds

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I finally got my day off, and headed off early to Dorset, lured by the promise of a vagrant drake bufflehead and a decent day's birding in the south-west, and perhaps my first summer migrants of the year. A long drive passed quickly, and I found a spot to park in Langton Herring, and walked up the hill to the view over the Fleet and Chesil Beach. The view was stunning, but the cloud cover wasn't promising - a smell of damp in the air was a premonition of things to come. It was an odd mix of seasons, with a large flock of fieldfare feeding in a field, while overhead skylarks sang. I took the public path to Rodden Hive, which had good numbers of duck, with wigeon calls heard in the distance before they were seen. Red-breasted merganser, goldeneye, teal, shelduck, shoveler and mallard were spread over the water, with a raft of coot in the distance. Over 20 little egret dotted the shoreline, small numbers of redshank and curlew chased around, and raven called overhead.

I was surprised to find that there was no one else there - with very few records this is a real rarity, but to be honest that made it all the better (I assume they were at a different vantage point?). After a few minutes searching I found the bufflehead (Bucephala albeola; click for larger - calling these heavily crops images record shots is being generous) in the distance with a pair of goldeneye; views through the scope were OK, but I'd have preferred a decent view. I took a few shots with the 500 and a 1.4X converter, but even that didn't have anything like enough reach - one for the extreme digiscopers I think. The light was poor, but I can't complain though - a mega, lots of other interesting species around, and silence...




I took a few images of singing dunnock (Prunella modularis; click for larger) using the 500/teleconverter combo, and considering that this is cropped and at ISO800, it's not too shabby.



My next stop was Portland Bill - but by the time I got there the cloud had descended, and the fog horn was being sounded by the lighthouse. No chance of any decent sea watching, but I was hoping for a wheatear. no luck there, but I did find a smart male black redstart, which was a bonus. There were good numbers of guillemots, and a few razorbills, gannets and fulmar, but I couldn't find the puffins that had been seen earlier. I spent a couple of hours wadering through the boulders and hoping the cloud would lift, but it was there to stay. I debated whether to look for the reported hoopoe, but the street doesn't exist according to my maps. Rather than wandering around aimlessly in Portland, I headed on.

Final stop - Radipole. After one wary and distant trans-Atlantic duck, I was welcomed by the tame-ish hooded merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus; click for larger) - suffering the ignominy of the plastic label. Whether deserved or not, it's still a gorgeous bird, and always worth a few minutes.




I did the reserve loops, but there was little of note - the highlight was a kestrel. I returned to check out the gulls at the visitor centre, and took a few images of herring (Larus argentatus) and lesser black backed gulls (Larus fuscus; click either for larger).




There was plenty of Cetti's warblers, with their loud-hailer calls ringing from the reedbeds. My last half a minute was spent photographing a Cetti's that actually gave me a chance to get a few shots - now that doesn't happen very often.




So - my first full day out in ages, and pretty successful too - a lifer, some decent birds, over 70 species seen, and even a couple of decent photographs - I went home a happy birder!

Ringing in the changes

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The end of a completely hectic few months is in sight - finally I'll get my weekends back, and there's even a chance my family may get me back too. I had planned to go to see the bufflehead this morning, but yesterday afternoon I got the chance to go ringing at a local site. I've been hoping to get back into ringing for some time - I had a healthy total of extracted, processed and ringed birds as a teenager, but studies and life got in the way. Now that my research interests are firmly pointing back to birds, it's obvious to me that a ringing permit could make all the difference in some of the projects I want to pursue. So, instead of the south coast, I was in damp scrubby lake margins for a 6:30 start for setting nets.





It was a quiet day, with only 13 birds caught - blackbirds, dunnock, blue, great and long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) and a reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus; click either for larger). On a purely selfish note, that worked well for me, as I was allowed to handle, process and ring many of the birds - I suspect on a busy morning I'd have been watching. I was very pleased to find that some of the fine motor skills associated with handling birds hadn't disappeared, but not so pleased to find that I couldn't remember anything about aging. Apart from inducing nostalgia, it was a good morning chatting about birds and birders in friendly company.

After the nets were removed, I headed to Lavell's for a quick check - Spring is definitely here, with lots of displaying teal (Anas crecca; click for larger), tufted duck and pochard. A hunting grey heron (Ardea cinerea; click for larger) and a redshank in the distance were the highlights. So, in some ways a very quiet day, but still very enjoyable.

Of surveys and students, mandarins and me

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Students choose to study zoology and ecology for a wide variety of reasons, but over the years it's become clear to me that many enjoyed biology at A level, and not quite sure what to do next, decided that the most enjoyable element was animal ecology, diversity and conservation, which they want to carry on with through degree level. Others have a long-held but relatively passive interest in wildlife, often fostered through TV documentaries and info-tainment, or for those who are fascinated by evolution, the books of Steve Jones and Richard Dawkins. A small minority really know their wildlife - usually keen on birds, reptiles or insects - but these are surprisingly few. I can never decide whether this is something to be worried about or not. I knew I wanted to do zoology once I discovered that you could actually have a career studying animals, and I was a keen birder since before my teens. Looking around, I suspect that I'm the oddity here, rather than the students - one of the best birders I know discovered birding in his early 20s, so an early start isn't essential.

At the same time, if I have a dogma, it is that to be a good field scientist you have to be a good natural historian. Having a gut feel for how species respond to the world around them helps peg lots of theories down, and just as important, the patience and tenacity that comes from slogging through the rain or heat is a critically important part of being a fieldworker. So - how do you engage students with the study of field biodiversity? My approach is to work with something everyone is at least superficially aware of - birds. They are fantastic examples of biodiversity on our doorstep, and the basic field techniques can be gleaned just by getting out there and doing it.

In a first year ecology module, I introduce the diversity of common winter birds on campus, and we have weekly fieldwork sessions allowing people to experience a range of species on campus, from grebes and ducks to thrushes and finches. Within a few sessions you can have people confidently separating black-headed, common, herring and lesser black-backed gull - which I think is no mean feat. This culminates in a survey of the birds on campus, where every corner has a team counting what is present. What is amazing is just how in a few weeks, people can go from having a dismissive attitude of the 'uncoolness' of bird-watching and bird-watchers, to seeing just how fascinating and diverse they are - wildlife on their doorstep. And they do a great job too. There are always odd misidentifications (usually we end up with willow tit on the list, which has to be removed), and we overestimate the numbers of some species as they fly over campus, and hugely underestimate others, but on the whole the survey gives a real insight into what's around.

We're incredibly lucky in that the campus is large, green and has a superb array of habitats on our doorstep - walk out of the lab and there's conservation meadows, mature woodland, a large lake and a botanic garden. The campus itself covers 130 hectares, and used to be the country estate of the Marquis of Blandford, who 200 years ago laid out the estate and planted many of the trees we benefit from today.

This year we had almost 1900 birds of 50 species (a pretty typical amount for campus at this time of year), and missed some obvious species such as grey heron, which drop in to feed daily. The usual red kites, sparrowhawks and kestrels, as well as the woodpeckers, get most appreciation, while dunnocks are hugely under-recorded. The best bit - when you speak to students who did the survey the first year it ran, and are now still are interested in birds, and a few even become keen birders and ringers.

There is a key place for 'natural history' in such degree courses - it underpins everything to do with environmental biology - but in many places it's been squeezed out. The 'flavours of biology' approach to teaching with shared classes across the subjects from biochemistry to zoology in the first year, a lack of time or resources, and a lack of appreciation for just how important these skills are all play a part. I feel fortunate to work at a university where we've bucked that trend, and all the better for the students too. You'd never notice that this was a personal bugbear, would you?!

And mandarins (Aix sponsa; click for larger) - simply because they're beautiful and being impressed by gaudy colours, they're by far my favourite duck. We (under-)recorded 14 today, along with 3 wood ducks, both of which breed in mature trees in the woodland. But the weather was kind, the students committed, and the outcome worth it - I hope they enjoyed it as much as me...