Farlington Marshes

On Wednesday the house inspector turned up early giving me the opportunity on a nice day to go down to Farlington Marshes.  After following a guy who was driving extremely erratically down the road (was he drunk!) I reached the reserve and checked out the lake first.  My first 2 Curlew Sandpipers of the year were seen.  On the fence line were 3 Wheatears and to be honest round the rest of the reserve it was pretty quiet with no Ospreys or Whinchats.

Dowitching...

Finally decided that I would go for the Short-billed Dowitcher at Lodmoor RSPB reserve although it meant driving to Weymouth which can be a pain.

On arrival stuck £1.10 into the car park meter for an hour (daylight robbery).  Spent the next hour watching where the bird had been reported earlier but no sign.  While waiting a Common Sandpiper showed and then a Water Rail gave good views.

Returned to the car park and added another £2.10 and returned to wait.  About another hour and a half the dowitcher suddenly popped out with a couple of Common Snipe.  Following ID features noted: snipe size, the wing coverts seemed to have a grey wash to them, a fairly distinct supercilium which was more obvious when the bird faced me, a yellowish, quite thick bill and from the literature the clincher was I could see the tiger stripes on the tertials.

I then went over to Portland and did a seawatch but apart from a few Gannets the highlight was a juvenile Kittiwake.  On the way back home I dropped into Easton where the Monarch butterfly was showing well roosting in a tree.

Overdue update

Haven't been birding in earnest in the last few months - mainly concentrating on dragonflies/damselflies including my first Red-veined Darters.  Here are the latest decent pictures I have obtained