Hampshire to Dorset to Hampshire. EOW!!

All week there had been a showy Lapland Bunting residing at Portland Bill. Although I have photographed them before it is one species that I haven't managed to photograph very well so I made plans to travel down early Saturday morning with Ian Wells. I picked up Ian around 05:30am but little did we know we would be hammering it back to our home county 6hrs later and only 20-30 mins drive from our houses. 

Surprisingly we arrived at the bill with no other photographers or birders present. This was a result as we did expect abit of a gathering and wondered how well the bird would show with a group staring at it. The sun just started to shine through as we made our way down to the cliff edge and it didn't take long before literally I nearly trod on the bird trying to photograph a Northern Wheatear close by. 

View from the Bill on a glorious September morning.

As you can see it was certainly showing well as soon as we had found it. 

We spent another couple of hours in the company of this super bird and many pics were taken although when a bird is this showy it's very hard to get anything different from anyone else and also with a fixed 500mm it's not the most ideal lens for this. A zoom would have been better equipped to photograph this bird for sure. We headed off to the obs quarry around 10am and immediately got onto the Wryneck however it wasn't the most memorable bird as it showed distantly and then vanished amongst the rocks. Shortly after we headed back to the car and headed to Lodmoor. Hopefully the Dowitcher will be more co operative. 

Once at Lodmoor it didn't take Ian long to pick out the Long-billed Dowitcher however it was mega distant and asleep which no doubt it would have been for most the afternoon so here are some pics of the Lapland Bunting from the Bill earlier. 

Lapland Bunting

Ian facing the wrong way, no wonder he doesn't get any decent pics 😉

It flew and landed in my shadow before moving away but still too close for my lens. 

We left the Dowitcher and decided to head over to the beachfront and have a quick look for the summer plumaged Red Throated Diver which was another reason for actually going but unfortunatley it had gone. It was a very nice day, bright blue skies and the temperature was beginning to rise so we thought we would have another check on the Dowicther hoping it had awoken and had gotten abit closer however my phone pinged and I received a WhatsApp message on the local hants birding group. It said "currently at Farlington" and a picture of a Warbler. 

Immediately I was like wtf is that. My first thought was a Hippolais Warbler and although it was a poor picture it was so grey above and white below with a long tail there was one bird on my mind but surely it couldn't be? Ian received the same message and instantly we made the no brainer decision to jump into the car and head back after texting Ash Howe saying what do you make of that Warbler? Probably a good job I did as he didn't even bother to read the messages as he assumed it would be more pointless sightings of the newly released White Tailed Eagle on the Isle Of Wight which have been rife recently. 

The original message and picture. 

At this point we were navigating our way out of Weymouth and as soon as we hit the duals it was foot down to try and get past as many cars as possible. For anyone who has been to Portland it can be a horrific journey if you catch it wrong but thankfully there was only a short hold up close to joining the A31. Ian was keeping a close eye on the conversation and it came through they think it's an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler which was exactly our thoughts. Not a tick for me as ironically Portland where we had just been was where I saw my first however this was a first for Hampshire and one I couldn't miss, for Ian it was a double whammy. 

Soon we arrived at the M3 junction that joins the M27 and this is where the road works start so from now on it was 50mph through the average speed check. Only when you are twitching a bird do you realise how long and tedious it really is. Passing J7 hedge end and another what's app message was put on which said it was showing again in a different bush, this was great news however we were still 30 mins away so not quite close enough. 

Finally the road works ended and we ploughed the next 4 or 5 miles to Farlington Marshes arriving to a pretty packed car park but took no risks and just whacked it into the middle car park. 5 minutes later we were on site and greeted by 30 or so Hampshire listers who I expect most had seen it by now. It was a tense 45 minute wait before the next sighting and in the heat of the day it was high up and very brief flitting around the tops of the bushes. In the end tho we got very good views and stayed on site until 6pm. As with most twitches these days there is always people who moan about people being too close etc but the main reason was sticking on this elusive bird. It was hot and it wasn't feeding on the edge like during the morning and also was very mobile. Eventually it settled down but even then it wasn't too worried about the close observers. IMHO the noise levels from general chatting was far more concerning which resorted to me saying if everyone shut the fuck up it may show longer. Basically if you have a lens you're fucked and you're going to get all the grief!! 

I love birding, I love twitching and I love Photography but in general it is getting worse. Everyone used to be happy at twitches but not anymore and it has become a them and us situation which is really sad as we are all in it for one reason to enjoy watching/twitching and photographing birds. Whatever one it may be it's the same reason we like birds!!

Don't get me wrong there is some really bad behaviour from all party's out there at times but I wish we would all blame the real culprits the people that are hunting these birds and killing everything in sight. They are the real bastards that are ruining things not a photographer that over steps the mark or a birder that shouts too loud although we should know ourselves what is and isn't too much. Anyway here are some pics of the star attraction, a superb find by Pete Gammage and a superb 1st for Hampshire which at the time of writing is still present to my surprise. 

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, 1st for Hampshire!

End to a very good day. EOW takes me up to 305 for hants.