Dorset - Bardolf Farm - A New Species for My Farm Tally!

It was probably too much to expect to trump yesterdays 3^rd record for Bardolf Farm in the form of Three Cattle Egrets! but does it not just come down to a question of scale particularly when patch watching?!

Today’s specialty a Tufted Duck was a new species for my Farm list and with two rivers running through the farm I was surprised this duck had not fallen into my grasp earlier! I have watched stretches of river in Surrey and along with Mandarin, Tufted Duck was a regular! Hugo informs me that Tufted were regular on the farm until recent years. Mandarin is very localized in Dorset and rare in the area.

The Tufted drake was in the company of a female mallard which caused a few issues on Devil’s Brook resulting in several “quack-offs” with the local Mallards! The Mallards were on a hiding to nothing as the Tufty tore down the river in pursuit of any drakes that had ideas above their station!

A lone Swallow flew south past my station and this was the only other bird of note in what was a dull day with a bonus to it!

The morale to this story is no matter how grim the weather is there is always a chance of recording something unusual!

Dorset - Bardolf Farm - Not One Not Two but Three Cattle Egret!

The outlook for the day was pretty grim but it was very mild 13c with showers and gusty SW winds! This was not a day to be sat indoors although I questioned my sanity several times during the day!

The Water Meadows had an unusual number of Little Egret on it which had me checking them and low and behold one was a Cattle Egret! I phoned Hugo and during the conversation the egrets took flight! Nooo! With phone in one hand and camera in the other I rattled off some shots before the bird disappeared W over Puddletown!

The day continued in the same vein which had pushed a handful of Sand Martin down over one of the ponds. I continued with my rounds hoping there would be something else to add to the days tally. As I was driving down the track to park at the barns at Waterbarn Cottages a Red Kite stooped into view. The bird was low attempting to negotiate the heavy rain. I abandoned the car a little too sharpish! I then ran up the hill attempting to get some pictures of the bird. The results were disastrous fortunately this species is more regular these days and thankfully it was not something rare!!

This gave me a lift in spirits and off I went having parked the car properly this time! I made my way up onto the ridge searching the hedgerow and fields for any downed migrants. The ridge gives an amazing view of course of the Devil’s Brook! I noted there were more Egrets at the north end. The final total was eleven with yes you’ve guessed it TWO Cattle Egret. Having just checked my pictures!

I was straight onto the Hugo hotline and he made haste and picked me up in his jeep so we could get a better vantage point from further along the ridge! This was both our second sighting of this species on the farm and he confirmed this was the third record in total!

Having now reviewed all my pictures from yesterday I have noticed there were THREE Cattle Egret that took flight at Puddletown Water Meadows in the morning!

Not a bad end to the day!