A Second for Longham
23rd June 2014 Strange record of a Turnstone at Longham Lakes today, in full summer plumage. Presumably it's a failed breeder that has gone all the way up to the Arctic, tried its best and returned again. Its loss is our gain, a true rarity here. A rubbish record...
Garden Surprise
17 May 2014 There are many advantages of playing football in the garden with your children. However, one that I had never thought of was to look up and see a Common Crane circling over to the north - but that's what happened today. Sorry, the shots aren't up to much,...
Spring Update
20th June Trevor Wilkinson today recorded some breeding wildfowl: 4 adult and 8 young Canada Geese, 29 Coot (with 1 chick), and adult Mallard with 4 ducklings and a pair of Mute Swans with 4 cygnets on the small pools to the south of the main lakes. In all there were...
Parking for Birders at Longham Lakes
If you are a regular visitor to Longham Lakes, you might like to know that SembCorp Bournemouth Water, the owners, are kindly allowing birders to use the Study Centre car park, so long as they display a numbered pass on their dashboard. To obtain such a pass, which is...
24th April: Garganey pair still present - initially showing well by small island in SE corner of South Lake but retreated to large island at north end of lake. Also 3 Whimbrel circled overhead and flew SW towards Poole Harbour and a single Wheatear on Hampreston...
Longham’s Garganeys
23rd April Still there today. Lorne Bissell got these images, digiscoping in the rain - he got soaked for his art! Also 1 female Wheatear, 3 Common Sandpipers and 2 Common Terns.
Another April update
22nd April The drake Garganey was still around at lunchtime, and other goodies included Hobby, Cuckoo (first of year), plus couple of Swifts over Longham Reservoir North. A strange sight was of 4 Common Sandpipers perched on a branch sticking out from the island in LR...
This Birding Summer
Birdwords Newsletter April 2014 First, an apology. I haven't been as assiduous as I intended in sending these newsletters out. That's because I have been writing books. In particular, my book Britain's Mammals in the WildGuides series took far longer than expected to...
A Great Summer of Birding
Why don't you join me on one or two of these terrific field trips this summer? They are open to all, but places go quickly. The quickest way to reserve a place is to e-mail me on dominic@birdwords.co.uk. You will need to make your way to the meeting place (see Events)...
Mid-April Update
15th April 2014 A great start to the day today, with a Greenshank flying over the main island, and then a Green Sandpiper flying over the north-west corner of Longham Reservoir South. Neither are common here; Green Sandpiper used to winter, but is now restricted to...