Gaye's Brownsea Birding Boat trip

In December Gaye’s work colleagues asked if they could buy a walk for Gaye and her friends for her birthday. The result was a day's wildlife watching on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour on April 20th, 2007. Gaye was hoping to see Red Squirrel, but they are not often in late spring and summer, so we would need some luck.
The weather had been unseasonably sunny and hot for several weeks and today was no exception. We met at Sandbanks and walked along the beach to the ferry terminal. We saw several Black-headed Gull on the way over and a Shag at the landing strip on Brownsea. Once on the island we hurried to the Dorset Wildlife Trust villa since the warden had kindly put the moth trap out and we wanted to see what had been caught. On the way we saw a large white duck hurry across the path and hide in the bushes. It turned out to be an injured Shelduck – we decided to leave it where it was and let nature take its course.
We got to the villa and just inside the door is a video link to a feeder tray for the Red Squirrels on the opposite side of the building. On the video was a Red Squirrel feeding….live!! We hurried out and saw the Red squirrel run across the path and it remained amongst the tree stumps for several minutes and we got great views of it.
We went back to the villa. Not a lot had been caught in the moth trap. The most memorable were Lesser Swallow Prominent, Pebble Prominent, Engrailed, Muslin and Hebrew Characters. As we looked at the moths we heard the distinctive call of Mediterranean Gulls. We looked up and 2 adults flew over us their white wings shining in the sun. There were also a few Great Tit singing in the trees.
We walked back down to the lagoon to look for birds from the hides. Before we got to the first hide we had seen a Greenshank, a few Black-tailed Godwit in their chestnut summer plumage and Avocet. From the hide the lagoon was full of noise with birds everywhere. Loads of Black-headed Gulls on all of the islands and plenty flying around, lots of Shelduck and the Greenshank was giving good views and there were 3 Avocet feeding on one side of the hide.. Altogether there must have been about 100 Black-tailed Godwit, some in a large group, but others dotted about. Some of them were very close and it was great to see them in their stunning summer plumage. Several Oystercatcher were dotted around and there were about 15 Cormorant on a sandbar. Some Canada Geese were on the far side of the lagoon and a group of waders turned out to be some Grey Plover and about 20 Dunlin, mostly with their black bellies of summer showing. Several Sandwich Tern started flying around calling and we found others sitting on a sandbar near the Dunlins. There was a lone Heron on one side and a few Great Black-backed Gulls on another sand bar. Back over by the Greenshank I spotted another wader with a longer slimmer bill and some black speckling showing through on the plumage – it was a Spotted Redshank, just coming into summer plumage.
We walked on to the second hide and there was more of the same, but wonderful views of an adult Mediterranean Gull sitting with some Black-headed Gulls. We were told that 2 pairs of Med. Gulls were breeding here this year – the first time they had ever done so. We also got very good close views of a Greenshank here too.
We had lunch in the National Trust café and got pestered by a very tame and belligerent Mallard! After this we walked to a tumbled down building amongst woodland called the Vinery. This is the area where Golden Pheasant are most often seen on the island. In the woods there were a few very tame Pheasant, some Willow Warbler singing and a Sika Deer feeding. There was a small pool in the woods with a few Mallard duckling – mother must have been hiding while we passed. No Golden Pheasant, but we walked out to a grassy area and saw a Wheatear on the grass. Further towards the landing quay there were several Peacock in the grounds of the National Trust house. One male was desperately displaying to a few females who seemed to take no notice of him at all. A few Jackdaw were on the grass near him. over and we saw a Goldcrest in a fir tree. At the last hide we saw a Greenshank, a Redshank and a Spotted Redshank together and a pair of Teal. Altogether a wonderful day with great weather and a Red Squirrel.
Simon Curson