Trip reports
UPTON PARK - JANUARY 22nd 2012
avocet
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Birds were busy in the woodlands on the way down to the hide, with long-tailed tits and coal tits joining great tits and blue tits in a flurry of movements. Nuthatches were plentiful and noisy too, orange undersides glowing as they scuttled along bare branches. Great spotted woodpeckers drummed all around, and in large tree a territorial dispute involving three birds lasted noisily all morning.
With the tide near full, and just a short stroll from the centre of Poole, Holes Bay was teeming with birds. Hundreds of black-tailed godwits, stately birds, probed and foraged in the mud near the hide or roosted in dense groups on the islands. Redshanks and curlews, wondrously patterned at close quarters, joined them, although hard searching could not find a spotted redshank. Further out several hundred avocets roosted in a white carpet before taking to the water to feed, marching like soldiers, in their deliberate feeding patterns. Along the mud banks countless teal and wigeon, plumage glowing, loitered or cruised gently in the shallows. Pintails roosted in the grasses, stretching their long, elegant and beautifully marked necks from time to time to check if all was still well with the world. In the far channels were shovellers and shelduck and out by the bridge there were little grebes and, very distant, dunlin, goldeneye and a red-breasted merganser. Amongst hosts of gulls, a fine pair of common gulls stood out as they patrolled across the bay. Add the sounds of constant whistling and piping and the scene was a captivating delight.
Lapwings and pied wagtails wandered the fields behind the bay and a large flock of finches, including at least some linnets, appeared jittery and anxious as a fine chestnut kestrel made a long low glide over them then edged out of sight over a low brow. The kestrel perched up and the finches hid. A buzzard, searching vainly for lift, passed low overhead and a song thrush, one of several, gave a fly past along the hedge.
In a fast flowing, overgrown concrete gutter a beautiful grey wagtail, flashing yellow, danced upstream with a wren flying from bank to bank in support. Later, on a post close to the track, the wagtail perched, legs impossibly slender, bobbing rhythmically up and down in the sun. Opposite, in a bank of holly and laurel trees, a pair of firecrests gave tantalising glimpses as they rushed and darted, never still, from bough to bough. Goldcrests were, comparatively at least, easier to see. In the grass there was a rare sight of a pair of stock doves close at hand and easy to study. Through binoculars they looked splendid, backs warm soft grey and breasts washed with lilac.
A walk along the shoreline after lunch, with the tide now far out, added a group of knots with the godwits and several oystercatchers out in the bay. Coming back there were mistle thrushes and, right at the end of the day, a green woodpecker on a post and then rooting around the scrub beneath.
Upton is more public park than nature reserve and Poole is lucky to have such a great facility right on its doorstep. I wonder how many of its residents know that you can see over sixty species of birds there during a gentle wander?
Reported by Mike Crow
Bird list: Little grebe, great crested grebe, cormorant, little egret, grey heron, mute swan, Canada goose, shelduck, wigeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, pintail, shoveler, tufted duck, goldeneye, red breasted merganser, buzzard, kestrel, pheasant, moorhen, oystercatcher, avocet, lapwing, knot,
dunlin, black-tailed godwit, curlew, redshank, black-headed gull, common gull, lesser black-backed gull, great black-backed gull, herring gull, stock dove, wood pigeon, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, grey wagtail, pied wagtail, wren, dunnock, robin, blackbird, song thrush, mistle thrush, goldcrest, firecrest, long-tailed tit, coal tit, blue tit, great tit, nuthatch, jay, magpie, rook, crow, jackdaw, starling, chaffinch, goldfinch, linnet, reed bunting.