Spring Nearly Springing

 Been a while since the last post. Birding has been limited by weather - yes, I can be a bit of a fair weather birder, guilty as charged, although less so at times of year more likely to be productive: my patch can be hard work at times and it's often not worth getting drenched or wind-blown for, however much I enjoy it there - and dragging myself out in a birdless hoolie is never very appealing .

So a lot of time has been spent stuck indoors, but not unproductive: eBird has been getting some attention as I work through my old notebooks from foreign travels. And dry and vaguely productive is preferable to wet or windswept for no obvious reason.

But I have got out a few times, sometimes on patch, sometimes just around the village, where Firecrest can be increasingly relied upon. One even ventured into our tiny back garden for the first time ever.

Not the one in the garden!

Peregrine is another that can be seen more or less as and when I want at this time of year and through summer, with a couple of pairs nesting within 4 miles of home and a couple of others not too much further away (although my only patch record so far this year was way out to sea on a seawatch).

Other seawatching records include an excellent count (for Hampshire) of 25 Shags, seemingly moving early morning to feed in Poole Bay, where that sort of count is more to be expected, and a single Kittiwake during a predictably unproductive Storm Eunice.

But this time of year is all about the anticipation of spring. A White Wagtail in off on 26th Feb was an early harbinger, and coincided with a noticeable increase in Pieds.

Female Pied

The patch year list has got back to ticking along in the past week too, after a period of nothing new. A flock of 60 Dunlin heading east offshore was a good count (my highest I think) for Barton, and the first this year, with another, less appealing, flock the next day also representing a first for 2022.

Greylag Geese

On the list now, so no need for any more thanks!

Yesterday afternoon I made a rare afternoon patch visit (usually work gets in the way, and birding is a morning thing) just for an hour or so, and was rewarded with two more additions. A small flock of Black-tailed Godwit likely won't be the last this year, but the nine Pintail that also headed east is a top quality patch record.

Six males, three females

A showy Dartford Warbler too, albeit about 20 metres below me in the undercliff scrub (which I MUST give more attention to this year).

And also yesterday, during a relatively rare foray into doing some work (it's getting harder and harder as I get older to motivate for work, especially in the winter months, not that it's something I ever look forward to) my first singing Blackcap of the year. Tentative subsong at first, but developing into something richer and more song-like as it grew in confidence.

And all the while, a trickle of gulls that have hinted at imminent movement. 

Then this morning, finally the first half decent passage. Mediterranean Gulls were the stars, with 46 through (in the coming weeks much bigger numbers should pass, but that will certainly do for starters). All were adults, in varying degrees of summeryness, except this one third-calendar-year bird 

3cy on the right

A few Common Gulls trickling through too (seven today), a species that's only really reliable at Barton on spring passage, but also the first suggestion of Black-headed Gulls moving. It is often difficult to work out which of these (and Herring Gull too), such a common bird on patch, are truly on the move rather than just drifting back and forth following the food and the tide or whichever mood takes them, but it gets easier when they're obviously associating with the Meds:

And sometimes it just sort of feels obvious that they mean it:

I have 145 down as today's total of birds moving, but, because of that doubt re local birds, it's not the most scientific of counts; a matter of intuition as much as anything.

Regular scanning offshore also turned up a Razorbill, my first in breeding plumage this year, and a small flock of Common Scoter, another species that will get more numerous (but no more easy to get a decent pic with a bridge camera!) as the spring progresses.

On the land there has been plenty more song, with Rock Pipits regularly displaying of late, and this morning there appeared to be a few more Blackbirds, although maybe they're just more conspicuous with slightly nicer weather. 

But definitely more Stonechats (another that's singing regularly now), with ten present today, up from between 4 and 6 previously. One bird that can pretty much always be relied upon at Barton is Stonechat!