Sun, sea and squirrels

I've been out and about a lot this week, trying to cram in as much wildlife watching as I can before the new job starts on Monday.

Spring is now well and truly underway, with the hedgerows heavy with blossom and lots of tender green shoots bursting from every branch. The local wildlife is also in full-on preparation for the breeding season. On a repeat visit to the Water Vole stream, I spent some time watching a pair of Wrens shuttling to and fro bringing lots of nesting materials to their chosen site.

Wren

I was also really pleased to get a slightly different shot of one of the voles, peeping out from within some tree roots.

Water Vole

I've also been back to check on my pair of Little Owls a couple of times - the female hasn't been showing at all, hopefully suggesting she may be on eggs.

On visiting one of the local lakes, I was really pleased to see that a lonely Great Crested Grebe that I've been observing for the last 2 or 3 years, has finally paired up with a mate. It was lovely to watch their courtship dance.

Great Crested Grebe

The pair of Little Grebes on the same site seem to be on the nest already, so I'll be keeping an eye out for their chick appearing in a few weeks' time. The Tufted Ducks also seem to be paired up now, too.

Great Crested Grebe - Pair

On Friday, my friend Phil & I went looking for Dartford Warblers, on a commons near Newbury. However, the weather was against us, and we only got a brief view of one in flight. We did also briefly see a Wood Lark on the ground. Lots of Skylark present, all singing away loudly!

Since our visit to Jo McIntyre's dark-morph Red Squirrel hide earlier in the month, I've been really fancying getting some shots of the 'standard' Red Squirrels in sunlight. As the forecast for the weekend was stunning, Lou & I decided to pay a long-overdue visit to the National Trust's Brownsea Island. In the middle of Poole Harbour, Brownsea is one of the last populations of Reds in Southern England - and it's also an important site for waders, terns and other seabirds. So, it's always a great place to spend a day, especially in the Spring and Autumn. We often combine a trip to Brownsea with a dawn visit to the RSPB reserve at Arne, on the other side of the bay - however today we opted for a fairly civilized departure time of 7.30am instead!

Driving down, we passed a family of foxes, basking in the early-morning sunshine on the embankment on the side of the M4.  Lots of Buzzards and several Red Kites patrolling along the motorway corridor too.

As we drove along the edge of Poole bay, we spotted a flock of 9 Brent Geese very close to the promenade, so I just couldn't resist pulling in to get a few shots of these elegant fowl.

Brent Goose

Fortified by a bacon-roll, and armed with pockets full of hazelnuts, we hopped on the first ferry of the day over to Brownsea. We were greeted by a drip-drying Cormorant, right by the landing dock on the island.

Cormorant

We started off with a visit to the Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve on the North End of the island, which includes the man-made lagoon, now an internationally important site for wintering and breeding birds - particularly waders and terns.  Many of the winter migrants have now left, while it's still slightly early for some of the more unusual summer visitors to have arrived yet. However, there were still lots of good birds to be seen; albeit a little too far back from the hides for much in the way of photography. We saw many Shellducks, Greylag, Canada and Brent Geese, Gadwall, Teal, Mute Swans, Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls and large flocks of Black-tailed Godwits, now starting to colour up nicely. Other waders included Avocets, Knot, Dunlin, Turnstone, Redshanks & Spotted Redshank and Greenshank. Apparently a couple of Sandwich Tern have returned earlier this week, but we didn't spot them; at the moment, the nesting scrapes are mainly occupied by very vocal groups of Black-headed Gulls and some Mediterranean Gulls.

Walking round towards the Villa, I spotted a Water Vole swimming through the marsh; Brownsea is actually where I saw my first ever Water Vole, a few years ago now! At the bird feeders in front of the Villa, we had a good range of woodland/garden birds, including Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit - and a Siskin. We had a quick look at the Salt Marsh hide, but the reeds and rushes are not yet high enough in front of the hide to attract the Bearded Tits etc, so we didn't linger.

Moving back to the National Trust side of the Island, we went into squirrel search and photograph mode. Things started off a little slowly... While we quickly located four foraging in a valley close to the visitor centre, our efforts to coax them closer with a judicious trail of hazelnuts were completely foiled by the attentions of one of the island's Peacocks! Having wandered over to see what we were up to, he quickly sussed that we had food and decided that we were his new best friends. He quickly hoovered up most of the carefully-placed nuts and the squirrels scarpered - while Mr Peacock seemed to be insisting that we should instead be taking his portrait!

Male peacock - Taken with my phone

Wandering on through the woods, we saw at least a dozen Red Squirrels, but didn't get anything more than record shots! We also saw several pairs of Green Woodpecker, all of which seem to be staking out nest holes. 

Eventually, in mid-afternoon, all of the hazelnut strewing-around finally paid off, when we got a pair of very tolerant squirrels foraging along a fallen tree. Sadly, by this point, the sun was largely off the area, but you can't have everything. We were both having fun snapping away - attended by the same Peacock, who'd clearly decided he was onto a good thing! We also made several families very happy indeed by helping them get a close view of the squirrels; maybe one of those excited little boys will be the next Chris Packham?

Waiting for the ferry back, we spotted a group of Turnstones zipping around on the rocks. Always nice to watch these funny little clock-work birds in action. All in all, a most enjoyable day out.

To finish the day off, Lou rescued a pair of Toads from a busy road while walking the dog this evening, so we released them back into the marshy woods behind Coate Water, where hopefully they'll have a better chance of not ending up laminated to the tarmac...