Sunday 3 April 2011

A Short-toed Blutail and a Red-flanked Lark

Its not very often you get two ‘lifers’ in one day. Today started with high expectation as there was plenty of cloud cover at dawn hence why I was at Abbotsbury with the mist nets open waiting for something to jump in. Sadly not a lot did, in fact the only migrants caught were 2 Chiffchaff and a single Willow Warbler. I gave up early and intended to go over to Durlston Country Park near Swanage. Reason being a Red-flanked Bluetail! It turned up yesterday but didn’t get the chance as work as well and truly in the way. Got back from ringing and somewhere fell asleep! Thankfully a text from local birder Brett Spencer woke me up and got me travelling up to Portland bill. Not for a Red-flanked Bluetail, but a Short-toed Lark. Got reasonable views on arrival and went back to the car to get the camera. But I was just about to take a picture and it did this! In fact that pictures so bad you can hardly recognise it as a Short-toed Lark but I’m pretty sure it is. Better pictures will almost certainly appear on the Portland obs website later.

 From Portland I headed straight over to Swanage for the Bluetail. Got to the site and discovered the bird hadn’t been seen for over an hour but after a 30 minute wait is revealed itself and showed on and off through the late afternoon.
Also thought I’d stick this picture on as I’ve literally just taken it. There were plenty of bats in the garden so thought I’d have a bit of fun with the camera. Might have another try at this sometime as I can obviously improve vastly on this picture!


This is a Pipistrelle but don't know if its a common or soprano. Can't ring a bat detecter to find out.

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