Wandering Wheatear.

I have received a report of  a Wheatear which has appeared in a Cowlease garden for several days now. It is unusual behavior as we usually only see these birds as they pass through Dorset on their way to their northern breeding grounds. A walk along the Ridgeway at this time of year will often reveal several birds flitting along the wall tops.

Northern Wheatear.                 Photo:  Mark Pemberton. Click to enlarge.

  Considering that this bird has flown over 2,000 miles, probably non-stop, from Central Africa, it deserves a rest and feed-up for a few days in Martinstown.  It is then likely to continue its journey to north country moorlands to breed.  They do sometimes stay to breed in Dorset, but in very low numbers, maybe two or three pairs every year in the Purbecks..

Things were different in the late 1700s, with thousands of  Wheatears being caught and sold as a delicacy in Weymouth market. In 1794 one man is credited with catching 7,880!  

Beefly

Looking like a miniature Humming Bird Hawk Moth, the Large Bee-Fly, Bombylius major  is making an appearance in village gardens. Moving rapidly from one spot to another in a behavioiur known as 'yawing' it is searching for the entrances to the underground nests of solitary bees, on which it is parasitic,  in order to lay eggs which on hatching will start feeding on the wasp larvae.
The Bee-fly has only one pair of wings as opposed to a bee's two, and is thus a true fly.

Large Bee-Fly              Photo: John Elliott

                      

Webcam Wildlife

For those of us having to  restrict severely our wanderings in the countryside there is much interest to be gained from two Dorset webcams, one run by DWT at its Lorton reserve where a pair of Barn Owls inhabit a nest box, and one on a Bournemouth University building where a pair of Peregrines are already incubating eggs.
The DWT webcam is at Wildlife webcam | Dorset Wildlife Trust  
The Bournemouth University is at H O M E - Bournemouth Peregrines

Country Coronavirus.

I attempted earlier in the week to continue my monitoring of our spring butterflies by taking my exercise along public paths only to meet strangers, both walkers and cyclists, some of whome made little attempt to maintain a two metre separation. At the age of 90 I cannot afford to take any chance of infection and will so record what I can  from the house. From my bedrom window the Rooks are back after last year's wipeout and busily rebuilding their nests.The sticks are broken from living branches, often with much difficulty, and if dropped are not picked up but left lying on the ground. Some of the smaller ones are  picked up by my resident pair of Woodpigeons who are starting a nest in the Pittosporum by the gate.  No sign of the blackbirds nesting yet though.