MORDEN BOG & SALISBURY

My birding buddy Steve Bool and yours truly decided to go to a place called Morden Bog in Dorset as we have heard that it's another good site for Crossbills and Dartford Warblers so on a wet dank Thursday morning we set off to have a look.

When we finally got there we parked up in a small flooded car park and made our way into the bog. We soon realised that wellington boots should have been worn by both of us as it was a lot more wet and squelchy under foot than we had anticipated. We made our way to some tall fir trees that were bursting with cones and soon heard the familiar "chip chip" calls of the Crossbills. There must have been about twenty birds there all above us but really high up in the trees but they wouldn't keep still long enough for Steve to get any digiscoping footage but we had some lovely views of them through his scope. I managed a couple of photos but they are heavy crops as the birds were so high.

female crossbill

and the male

Here's Steve with his scope hoping that the birds would stay still long enough for him to record them.

stay still you pesky crossbills

We moved on from there hoping to get a sighting of a Dartford Warbler we had already heard them calling but they would show only briefly then dive back down into the undergrowth.

We got talking to a nice bloke who was telling us of the birds they get at the bog including a White Tailed Eagle what a bird that would have been to see.

We finally had decent views of a Dartie but I was to slow with the camera although Steve did manage a record shot of it through his scope and phone combo it stayed still long enough to get this record shot it's not great but it's a shot.

record shot of a dartie

With not much else showing and it being very wet and mucky underfoot we decided to make our way back to the Van and go to another good birding area called Compton in Salisbury.

this is me battling through the bog

This is the place that we came a few months ago and got to see, film and photograph the Great Bustards.

We parked up and nearly straight away were greeted by flocks of Corn Buntings, Linnets and Starlings what a sight and what a feeling as the Starlings came in whirring over our heads.

starlings settling in a tree

starling flock

Here's a small section of the massive flock of mixed finches and buntings.

mostly linnets with a couple of corn buntings

Here's a couple of heavily cropped Corn Bunting pictures.

corn bunting

There were also Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and Stonechat mixed in with the Linnets and Corn Buntings.

We also spotted this Brown Hare in amongst the undergrowth.

brown hare

Although there were no signs of the Bustards this time (I think they disperse in the Winter so are more difficult to see) there were good numbers of raptors (birds of prey) with six red kites filling the sky and Buzzards circling overhead.

red kite searching for worms

red kite in flight

here's a couple of Buzzard pics

buzzard also looking for worms

buzzard in flight

We also saw a Merlin perched on a fence post but as soon as we got the gear out to record it and hopefully get a photo it took off. I would have loved to have got that beauty in my lens but it wasn't to be. We also had a flyby Kestrel but again to quick for us to get any footage or picture.

It was finally time to call it a day but we had seen some great birds and that Morden Bog would be worth a visit in the springtime. Big thanks to my good mate and chauffeur Steve Bool for taxiing me around the country so until the next one cheers.