The Vintage Birder

A walk around the grounds of Kingston Lacy produced another species for the year list.  Spotted Flycatcher (5) probably juveniles taking insects on the wing. Spotted Flycatcher - (Archibald Thorburn). The Migration of Birds By Jean Dorst Published in 1962 was purchased from the secondhand book shop. The vintage optics used today were the Carl Zeiss Jena Deltrintem 8x30 - Q1  these are another classic pair binoculars, very similar to the Carl Zeiss Jena Jenoptems 8x30W that I cut my birdwatching teeth with.  From the objective lens end the serial number for mine puts them around 1974. Year List 114.

Wednesday 2nd August 2023. Another purchase from the Oxfam. I thought the illustrations are a work of art. There are various few books in the Blandford series, birds which I have is alos a beautiful book too. Great illustrations  Even the back cover is stunning  I always like the inscriptions in books, it makes them personal. Illustrations with species name and the text near the back of the book.

Some recently acquired paints, pencils and pastels have hopefully inspired me to get back into sketching and painting, this is my first go for about a year. I choose the cock Bullfinch because of ots beautiful colour and that I either see or hear them everytime I go to the common. The colours are slightly different in the image compared to the original.

As I walked up to the doctor's surgery I spotted this old gate in Salisbury Road, it is the entrance to Sherborne Area School Trust building which actually was a church. G - M. 1910 - 1935. St Rumbold's is a church of medieval foundation, completely rebuilt by William Walker 1839-40; church reordered and vestry added by C.E. Ponting, 1910. Now a performance space for Shaftesbury School.

Monday 31st July 2023. I was going to spend the afternoon in the Tern Hide and once the rain had abated I would go up onto the mound to scan around. There were two men in a canoe testing the water quality, so many of the birds moved away and around Ibsley Water which didn't really affect what was seen.  The first bird seen was a Common Sandpiper as I sat down to look through the window slits. further scans produced the usual Coot, Egyptian Goose, Greylag Geese, Canada Goose, Great crested Grebes, Cormorant. Gulls and a number of other species too. Earlier on I picked up the Ruddy Shelduck and had some good views, apart from that there was not much else to report, my brief time outside less than 25 minutes I spotted a hen Blackcap a juvenile Blackbird ,youngster an and other things flying through like large Gulls, Wood Pigeons, C arrionCrows, Jackdaws  but late afternoon was better than when I first got there it was persistent rain until about half three. Ruddy Shelduck...

Sunday 30th July 2023. A quick evening dash down to Breach Common after the pouring rain that we had all day, gave me the chance to see a few birds before the end of the day. On the bird scene generally it is much quieter in evenings than during the mornings considering its July a quiet month for birds. But I still came up trump’s with two Buzzards a Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel , slightly later a pair of nice Bullfinches flew past. I moved on round two Rolt's Millennium Green where I counted 7 - 9 Swifts and a jumble of Raspberry blowing House Martins , all rounded off with a nice view of a Buzzard in the valley from the Green seats. There was only a quick respite in the rain, by the time I returnd home, about half an hour later after that the heavens opened again. Angry skies over Duncliffe Woods  Kestrel - (Joseph Wolf). Buzzards. Swifts - (Richard Richardson).   Sparrowhawk