The theme of the day was to catch up on some local birding. The day started with Swift and Swallow over the house. The next stop was Puddletown Water Meadows and time by the roadside watching the meadows.
The meadows in winter are flooded and host a mix of wildfowl and shorebirds. In spring the gates are lowered and the fields dry out. A Reed Warbler was the first new addition of the morning. Mid way through the morning surprise of the day a Turtle Dove came flying low into view from behind the hedge-line continuing west towards the church.
The cloud was once again closing in which bought the hirundines lower which contained a Swift and Swallow. I moved down to Athelhampton where cattle were grazing in the field. A few regular species were added before the rain set in and I decided to move on to Oakerswood checking the fields en-route to look for other migrants.
A couple of hours produced a Spotted Flycatcher and a flyover Crossbill. Having exhausted my search parameters (there is one public path through the woods) I moved on to Waddock Cross and The Watercress Company Cress Beds.
On arrival I spied a Yellow Wagtail feeding in the long grass by the greenhouses but the bird quickly disappeared from view to re-appear on the cress beds. The bird then flew over the Wasabi Buildings out of sight!
In between times what initially looked like an interesting raptor but turned out to be a pale phased Buzzard flew overhead.
The Yellow Wagtail was very mobile across the beds appearing briefly then disappearing for over an hour before re-appearing again! I wondered if there was more than one bird but photographs confirm a single male bird! Roly had hot wheeled it over to the site and had a view of the bird before it vanished once again.
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