Jackdaws

A lovely spring-like day today. Jackdaws were noisily establishing nesting sites on the roofs of the old buildings by the quay in Wareham. These small crows are great - noisy, full of character, playful and charming.

A little down the road, we were surprised to find a glossy ibis feeding in a wet meadow beside the footpath at Bestwall RSPB reserve. It had been in the Wareham area for two or three weeks but only arrived on this patch today. Also in the flooded meadows there were black-tailed godwits, teal and shoveler.

The pictures in these links are only what you might call 'record' shots, not good enough to be blipworthy.

Apologies for not doing much commenting lately - I have to complete my section of the Dorset Bird Report 2010 by the end of March, and this will require an hour or two each night if I'm to meet the deadline. If you think it sounds boring - it is! Every sighting of the rarer birds of prey like hen harrier and osprey have to be recorded so that future readers can see patterns of occurence and trends (steadily up in the case of osprey, steeply down for hen harrier)