Trip reports
UPTON COUNTY PARK - JANUARY 20TH 2010
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Upton Park near Poole on a January morning was nothing like that at all. The temperature crept just above freezing, and rain, almost sleet, fell steadily. The damp and cold penetrated to the marrow and the sullen grey light, reluctant to appear at all, sucked away all colour leaving a dismal monochrome. Not a day for photos maybe, but an exceptional list of 64 species gave each of the group of seventeen a memorable day by its end.
The car park and woods were full of finches and tits and the fields held plenty of redwing and song thrush with occasional mistle thrush and a few fieldfare. In one field a little egret stood quite unconcerned, bright shaggy white even in the poor light, within yards of the group.
Holes Bay was filled with birds constantly in motion, and swept by evocative whistles and piping on its mudflats. There were large numbers of wigeon, teal and shelduck, with more flying in from time to time, and a flock of around a hundred avocets. Snipe flew and then hid in the marsh, pintails stretched their chocolate ripple heads and godwits and redshank were busy in the mud. Despite the cold and poor light it was a captivating sight, wild and melancholy and timeless. All was just as winter on marsh and mudflat should be.
Gulls were few but included common gull and yellow legged gull. Herring gulls were added later in the day. Out by the bridge a seal kept a little grebe company for minutes on end, repeatedly rising alongside but seemingly without any real threat. Perhaps it was stealing fish or just curious, but the grebe finally saw sense and flew away.
Just outside the park, only a short walk from the centre of Poole, a busy dual carriageway on an embankment roars with speeding cars and trucks. At the bottom of the embankment there is a footpath along the water's edge and only yards from this footpath, avocets and redshank feed and wigeon and teal swim. The birds and the drivers pass so close, but each in complete ignorance of the existence of the other. Here, with the light finally improving, were common sandpiper and kingfisher. Giving a splendid finish to the day a spotted redshank walked and swam around shoreline rocks with a redshank in the same view for comparison, as if in a field guide.
Bird List
Long tailed tit, great tit, blue tit, coal tit, house sparrow, dunnock, wren, greenfinch, chaffinch, goldfinch, goldcrest, robin, blackbird, redwing, fieldfare, song thrush, mistle thrush, pied wagtail, nuthatch, meadow pipit, wood pigeon, stock dove, magpie, jay, starling, jackdaw, kingfisher, mallard, pintail, shelduck, wigeon, teal, pochard, gadwall, shoveler, tufted duck, snipe, black tailed godwit, dunlin, avocet, redshank, spotted redshank, common sandpiper, curlew, oystercatcher, lapwing, buzzard, sparrowhawk, black headed gull, lesser black backed gull, great black backed gull, common gull, yellow legged gull, herring gull, cormorant, mute swan, Canada goose, moorhen, little grebe, grey heron, little egret, greater spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, tree creeper (h).
Reported by Mike Crow