After ticking gently along for the past three weeks or so, spring seems to have exploded today in a flurry of Garganey. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case for anywhere on the south coast except Christchurch Bay, upon which my patch sits.
But not to worry, tomorrow there's a bit more south in the wind (at least there is at a time which is useful to me, which is basically the first half of the morning), so hopefully the passage will continue tomorrow, and the SE wind will bring them my way. Likewise Little Gull, which I don't see very often (more's the pity), and which showed up at a couple of places today.
In any case there's always something to see, and it doesn't pay to get hung up about what others have had elsewhere.
Kestrel with half a something rodenty
Today's three hours out was definitely worthwhile though, with bits and bobs always going on. Gulls of various species headed mostly east in small numbers, as did, more unexpectedly, a few Woodpigeons and a couple of Stock Dove; one of the latter was out to sea a little, giving it a convincing "on the move" feel.
A Fulmar and a small group of eastbound Common Scoter were a nice spring sign, but one sure indication that the season has truly started is Meadow Pipits on the move.
Barton is actually a tricky site to properly count spring passerine migration. Unlike in autumn, when most things follow the coast (or nearly do), in spring it's a case of "in off". And because my patch has no obvious promontory to channel incoming birds any passage is only ever a sample of the full story. My patch covers about 4 miles of the gently concave north coast of Christchurch Bay (7 miles in total between Hengistbury and Milford) and generally one only picks up those within a relatively short distance of wherever you're stood (and if the sea is noisy not all calls are picked up, to add to the incompleteness). Add to that the fact that passage tends to peak after I have left for work (first Mipits typically arrive about an hour and a half after sunrise having made the 75-mile crossing from the Cherbourg Peninsula) and the counts I make are highly unrepresentative of the total. The 42 I had north this morning no doubt equates to many hundreds along the full width of the patch during the time I was there, and from what I saw whilst working, there was a good movement pretty much throughout the day.
A very nice surprise this morning was the reappearance of the Purple Sandpiper flock.
Since racking up that county record 33 on 10th February I have only seen "purps" three times on patch, with a maximum of just three birds: apparently they've been favouring similar habitat just across the border in Highcliffe. So, after seeing three birds when I arrived it was a real pleasure to then get a proper flock as I got back to the car park. Reeled off some photos to aid with a count.
And was thrilled to see that, as suspected (and as predicted back in February), the flock had grown. So the county record is now 36!!!
And very busy she was too, coming back every twenty seconds or so with a new beakful of vegetation.
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