Brownsea Island 25th June

Brownsea Island 25^th June

On a bright sunny Sunday morning 23 intrepid explorers met at the Sowton Park and Ride for our expedition to Brownsea. As we drove eastwards in the coach some of us, who were dressed in shorts and summer attire, realised that (as always) English summers are unpredictable as steady rain set in.

We caught the 11am ferry at Poole for the 20 minute trip to the island where some of us promptly bought some National Trust rain wear (this ensured the weather would dry up!). There was no organised itinerary and we split up into a number of smaller groups to amble around the island.

The main area used for bird watching is the northern part of the island which consists of woodland, wetland and a lagoon within the Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve. The lagoon is a complex of non-tidal brackish shallow water, mud banks, salt marsh and small gravel islands which have been constructed as nesting sites for the Tern colony. Black-headed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Oystercatcher, Mallard and Canada Geese also nest on the banks and islands.

At the first hide inside the reserve many Black-headed Gulls where seen with their young (some with quite distinct ginger markings). Further on at the Macdonald hide many Sandwich Terns were seen by their nests with recently hatched youngsters. It was good to see groups of children in these hides, being introduced to the wildlife and listening to one of their guides describing the change of colour of Black-tailed Godwits from their winter plumage to their summer orange colouring.

Most people stopped for lunch by The Villa, surrounded by various Bantams who were on the look out for a crumb or two. The Villa has a feeding station for the Red Squirrels and it was rewarding to see our native squirrel (as opposed to our American imports!). Another hide overlooks a peaceful lake where Tufted Duck, Egrets and Mallard ducklings were seen (amongst others).

In the afternoon, some of us meandered to the view points on the southern side of the island where the superb scenery of the Isle of Purbeck could be seen. On the way back a very tame young squirrel was seen by the Visitor Centre (it had apparently just pinched the remains of someone’s sausage roll) and then we all met at the quay for the return boat trip.

Due to the tides we could not sail around the south of the island but instead sailed out to the harbour entrance to see Old Harry Rocks and then returned to Poole to pick up the coach. It was a very enjoyable day, 39 species were seen and our thanks again to Richard for organising the event.

Tony Patston

Birds seen, in BOU order or alphabetic order

BOU order

Mute Swan

Canada Goose

Shelduck

Teal

Mallard

Tufted Duck

Pheasant

Little Grebe

Cormorant

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Buzzard

Moorhen

Coot

Oystercatcher

Avocet

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-headed Gull

Herring Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Sandwich Tern

Common Tern

Wood Pigeon

Green Woodpecker

Barn Swallow

Wren

Robin

Blackbird

Reed Warbler

Blackcap

Chiffchaff

Willow Warbler

Blue Tit

Magpie

Jackdaw

House Sparrow

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Alphabetic order