We went to Pennington near Lymington today to see if we could see the Red-backed Shrike which has been frequenting bushes on the edge of Butts Lagoon for a few days now. There were no birders around so we had to find it for ourselves. We did and we have these pictures to prove it.

After a false start to this revived Blog, and after an atrocious previous weekend, a lovely sunny Thursday afternoon saw us at Durlston Country Park near Swanage for a clifftop walk. We were hoping for Clouded Yellow butterfly, but had to be content with some pretty decent birds, which included six Kestrels, four Peregrines, Wheatear, Dartford Warbler and a superb male Merlin. We also saw a very inquisitive Stoat.

Wheatear

Kestrel

Peregrine

Stonechat

Stoat

It was a very windy day, so Blashford Lakes just north of Ringwood was the place to go. There weren't many woodland birds about, so we walked straight to Lapwing hide overlooking Ibsley Water from where there were high numbers of Coot and Great-crested Grebes, and the usual feral flock of Canada and Greylag Geese.

A Common Sandpiper picked its way along the edge of Ibsley Water and two juvenile Black Terns were on the far side of the lake. There were three Egyptian Geese and Common Terns on Rockford Lake, and five Black-tailed Godwits, a Little Egret, Teal and a Grey Heron on Ivy Lake.

Sorry there are no photographs to post, but I will be posting some soon.

More in hope than anything else I had a look to see if my old Surfbirds Blog still existed, and to my surprise it did, so here we are, I'll get sorted out and post something as soon as I can.

Brian