Birds of Bridport 2020
Introduction
While I am by no means an expert or professional birder, a love of birds has been a constant thread throughout my life, amounting now to forty years of amateur field experience.
In early March of this year, for the first time, I began keeping a simple daily list of all the local species I encountered in a pocket notebook, a habit that has endured throughout this unusual year. In support, my father very sweetly made me the gift of a pair of binoculars back in April, the first I have carried since I was a child.
Almost all of my birding this year has been conducted within comfortable walking distance of my home in Bridport, Dorset — that is, the town itself, its surrounding hills and outlying villages, as well as the nearby harbour, cliffs and beaches of West Bay. These are the birds on our doorstep, moving in a gentle rolling landscape of fields and copses, hedges and holloways, along the humble rivers of the Brit and Asker, the birds that can be seen or heard without venturing very far at all. That said, however, I have here chosen to include the nearby Iron Age fort of Eggardon Hill as part of the Bridport area “patch”, just a couple of miles outside the town, considering how much time I have spent there among certain unique species, particularly during the autumn and early winter months.
My notes have mostly consisted of no more than a simple daily tally of common names, very occasional estimates of numbers if noteworthy, and perhaps a little exclamation mark (“Chiffchaff!”) to highlight first migrant sightings, etc. The daily record I have kept was never intended to be of much use as hard scientific data, but purely as a tool in my own pursuit of a very particular kind of joy and connection. The experience has clearly shown me how the practice of noting itself engenders far greater concentration, awareness and intimacy with the creatures I meet: It helps put me in the “zone”. Odd as it may sound, I consider birds my closest friends in this world and cannot imagine life without their excellent company. Besides, I like to write down their lovely names in a notebook! Often this has amounted to as many as 45 different species on a single day.
There will doubtless be many species which I have either missed or failed to identify. For example, a friend of mine watched an Osprey pass over Bridport in the spring; Another reported regular sightings of a lonely overwintering Brambling — to say nothing of official records for the area which, I must admit, interest me surprisingly little!
Now we have arrived at the end of 2020, I would like to share the full list I have compiled over almost ten months, along with some further notes, highlights and reflections. My hope is that this might be of interest to local people in particular.
Birds of Bridport Area
7th March — 31st December 2020
Little Grebe
Fulmar
Gannet
Cormorant
Little Egret
Grey Heron
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Mallard
Common Scoter
Red Kite
Marsh Harrier
Sparrowhawk
Buzzard
Kestrel
Merlin
Hobby
Peregrine
Pheasant
Moorhen
Oystercatcher
Golden Plover
Lapwing
Knot
Purple Sandpiper
Dunlin
Snipe
Curlew
Common Sandpiper
Black-Headed Gull
Lesser Black-Backed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-Backed Gull
Sandwich Tern
Common Tern
Feral Pigeon
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Cuckoo
Barn Owl
Tawny Owl
Swift
Kingfisher
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Skylark
Sand Martin
Swallow
House Martin
Meadow Pipit
Rock Pipit
Yellow Wagtail
Grey Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Dipper
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
Black Redstart
Stonechat
Wheatear
Ring Ouzel
Blackbird
Fieldfare
Song Thrush
Redwing
Mistle Thrush
Reed Warbler
Whitethroat
Garden Warbler
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Willow Warbler
Goldcrest
Firecrest
Long-Tailed Tit
Marsh Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Nuthatch
Treecreeper
Jay
Magpie
Jackdaw
Rook
Crow
Raven
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Siskin
Linnet
Bullfinch
Yellowhammer
Reed Bunting
Corn Bunting
(99 species)
Notes, highlights and reflections
It would be daft of me to try and discuss every single species in detail but I would at least like to offer some additional notes and musings on our more notable local birds, grouped here under a few loose headings.
Everyday species
These are the birds it is almost impossible not to meet on a daily basis in Bridport. Even on a day of continuous rain, or with hardly setting a foot outside the house, Herring Gull, Feral Pigeon and Jackdaw are never far away. Similarly, I have to search long through my notebooks to find a single day’s absence for the likes of Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Magpie, Rook, Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, and Goldfinch. Their everyday presence provides ample opportunity for nuanced observation over the cycle of the year. Still, even our common resident birds such as these seem to pass by completely unnoticed by most of the people around me!
Raptors
It has apparently been a great year for raptors, or at least a great year for them making themselves apparent. It is always a special delight to cross paths with these beautiful predators and we are very fortunate that Buzzard, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and even Peregrine are a regular and abundant presence in the area.
To my amazement, I saw a Marsh Harrier in the town for the first time this year, patrolling the reedbeds along the lower Brit above West Bay on 5th April. I have seen them before on odd occasions somewhat further east along Chesil beach, on the Fleet lagoon beyond Abbotsbury, but never passing through Bridport.
I also saw my first Red Kite over Bridport this spring, beginning back in late March with very regular sightings of what I imagined to be a lone bird, but culminating in an extraordinary event on 10th May when at least fifteen kite passed overhead while my family and I were walking on Hyde Hill above Walditch. I can imagine that Red Kite have not been seen in the immediate area in such numbers for generations. Friends in Bridport and nearby Burton Bradstock reported seeing similar numbers and I later learned that birdwatchers at West Bexington had counted a total of 108 migrant birds arriving over Chesil beach that day alone, and even greater numbers were recorded further east along the coast over Poole harbour on the same day. The resident UK population clearly must have surged during the summer but sadly these passage migrants did not settle around Bridport and I have not seen any here since.
A true highlight of the spring and summer months was the presence of Hobby, one of my own very favourite birds, first appearing on 4th May. Sightings of this magnificent falcon gradually became so frequent that I lost mental count. I watched them in a variety of locations around Bridport, languorously feeding talons-to-bill while on the wing, chasing down airborne insects and speeding hirundines, hurtling across the landscape, even wheeling in the summer evening sunlight above our house in the very centre of town. It is clear that at least one pair must have nested in the area, I suspect out towards Askerswell, but doubtless there were multiple pairs.
Last but not least, and another local first for me, a Merlin came to Hyde Hill on Boxing Day, exploding low over a hedge and down into a field of Skylark. What a thing! Words really do fail. Encounters like these are medicine for the soul.
Waders
I think it is fair to say that wading birds are not a particularly common sight in the area, entirely due to the nature of the landscape. Our shingle beaches and small rivers offer little for this large group of British species which are consequently all but absent from my overall list. Occasionally this year I have spotted lone Oystercatcher or small flocks of Curlew speeding across Lyme Bay in search of mudflats elsewhere. Now and then, one or two Dunlin or Knot have found themselves separated from the flock after a storm and so huddle on the beach for a while to regain their strength before vanishing overnight. Pairs of Common Sandpiper have also passed this way and, on the 31st December, the 99th and final species to make it onto the list came to West Bay in the form of a very handsome Purple Sandpiper.
Meanwhile, autumn brought small seasonal flocks of glorious Golden Plover and Lapwing to the bare fields of Eggardon Hill, where I was also blessed to flush out a local Snipe on two separate occasions, zig-zagging cleverly away into the mist, a real highlight of my year.
Some other seabirds
I am sorry to say that identifying the more unusual gulls is not my forte, so I can only confidently report the presence of the four species listed — although a friend did report encountering a Mediterranean Gull on Chesil beach at Burton Bradstock during the summer. There is always the wonderful sight of Fulmar nesting each year on our cliffs to look forward to, as well as the year-round presence of Gannet offshore, only rarely visible to the naked eye but invariably present nonetheless. On 5th April the unusual sight of two Common Scoter caught my eye just off the end of West Bay pier.
Good numbers of Sandwich Tern diligently patrolled the coast here throughout the spring and summer, joined briefly by a veritable spate of Common Tern later in the year. One very grumpy-looking Sandwich Tern perched solidly on a buoy in the harbour for over a week during April, without ever deigning to reveal why.
Hirundines and some other migrants
I saw Sand Martin on just one occasion in 2020, when a flock of around 40 paused on migration to feed over a field below the town on 19th March. A first Swallow appeared in the same field on 4th April and the first House Martin just over a week later on the 13th. My first Swift this year seemed unusually early, appearing over Asker Meadows on 24th April. The last of these almost supernatural creatures passed by the corner of my eye on 27th August, providing me this year with an unprecedented full four months of sheer delight.
In autumn the House Martin began to mass together along the coast in gigantic feeding flocks, the like of which I have certainly never seen before, easily 1000-strong. The last birds I saw were as late as 8th October and the very last Swallow I recorded came just a few days later on 11th October.
What could I possibly say about these famously inspiring summer visitors that has not been said before? Perhaps only that, yes, they mean the world to me too.
This is probably the point to mention that I heard my first Blackcap on 7th March, followed by a first Chiffchaff on 15th March, before the latter began to appear in startlingly huge numbers along the fields and hedges of the Brit. I did not hear the luscious strains of a Willow Warbler this year until 5th April; Comicly manic little Whitethroat appeared in their usual bushes atop Hyde Hill on 18th April.
Pipits, wagtails, etc
Dull, darling little Rock Pipit have been a constant presence on the rocky groynes at West Bay, although are probably as good as invisible to most of the human visitors to our lovely seafront, hidden in plain view. In spring they were briefly joined as usual by freshly-arrived Wheatear, always a splendid sight, passing en route to much higher ground outside the county, the first birds appearing on 20th March; In autumn the same birds paused again on their return journey accompanied by their juveniles, lining the stone walls on Hyde Hill.
Meadow Pipit also passed through in good numbers this year, a bird I have not knowingly noticed in the area before, mingling and moving with the local Skylark population which itself seemed to swell in number quite significantly, long after all the heady days of singing were done. Autumn flocks comprising many dozens of Skylark became a familiar sight on Eggardon Hill and even directly above the town on Hyde Hill.
As ever, Grey Wagtail have been a very regular sight along the Bridport rivers, particularly beside the local brewery, but after the breeding season they seemed to almost vanish, reappearing only very recently after the winter solstice watershed.
In late summer I saw Yellow Wagtail for the first time around Bridport, a small flock feeding directly under the hooves of grazing cattle near Askerswell. A week or so later the fields above West Bay were alive with dozens of these spectacular little migrants, mingling alongside Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Wheatear.
I had considered myself lucky at the time to cross paths with a lone Black Redstart on Eype beach, back at the very beginning of spring on 21st March, but to my amazement a second individual appeared right in the centre of Bridport’s old industrial quarter of North Mills in November and remained there through to the end of the year. I have since seen this lovely male bird most days, quivering and flitting along the ridge of the joinery workshop roof where I am employed. Of course I very much hope he might hang around, even perhaps until the spring.
Finches, buntings, etc
Lastly, we come to perhaps my favourite group of all, those mostly farmland birds whose long shared history with humans I find always lends a special poignancy to our encounters, particularly given the unbelievable scale of their general decline in recent decades. Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Bullfinch, while not nearly as commonplace as they once were, are frequently in evidence around the town, and I was truly delighted to come across Siskin here too after many years. But a special mention must be made of the endlessly charming Linnet, something of a totem species for me this year. Small flocks have been a regular feature of my walks up on Hyde Hill throughout the spring and summer, often drawing my route on a hopeful detour towards potential meeting points. Very occasionally, one or two Yellowhammer have announced themselves too in amongst the Linnet’s hedgerow haunts, but it has been in the later months up on Eggardon Hill that I have enjoyed watching vast mixed winter flocks of Yellowhammer in their dozens, as many as 400 Linnet at a time, and even fair numbers of Corn Bunting, a species that had eluded me all my life until 2020. I first came across Corn Bunting in the barley fields at the foot of Maiden Castle just outside Dorchester back in July, and returned several times to see them again, until colder weather brought them closer to Bridport. Their short, jangling song, “like a trill on a harpsichord”, must qualify as my Sound of the Year.
Reed Bunting also nested in the lower Brit reedbeds again this year and the exceptionally handsome male could often be sighted from between the rows of caravans along the footpath, singing proudly atop his swaying perch, competing with the much noisier and plentiful Reed Warbler, a species I first noted on 24th April — the same day as the year’s first Swift.
Other notable species
Now, who have I forgotten? Ah, yes…
On 11th April I heard my first Bridport Cuckoo in eight full years, sounding briefly in the valley below Hyde Hill, although that was very much that.
Another Bridport first for me, a single Dipper turned up along the Asker on 27th June. Strangely, I had to wait until as late as 14th October before seeing my first Kingfisher of the year, also on the same stretch, although I have since seen them fairly regularly darting blue fire up and down the river Brit beside my workplace at North Mills.
On 12th June, out near Askerswell one evening, I was thrilled to be granted brief audience with that otherworldly messenger, the Barn Owl, surely a positive sign whichever way you look at it.
On Eggardon Hill one misty autumn morning I saw my first ever Ring Ouzel, passing through the area on 17th October.
The End
There is of course a lot more I could add, but should probably leave it there. Please feel free to contact me with any thoughts or questions you might have after reading this little end-of-year round-up, either by email dmartin59267@protonmail.com or on Twitter @mixed_flock. Thank you for listening.
David Martin
Bridport
4th January 2021
