Branksome Dene Chine :: 28 October 2017

We were due to be picking Eilidh up at 11.30am and so after breakfast Charlotte and I opted to walk down Branksome Dene Chine to the beach and have a stroll, while Ailsa rested in her room.

We dropped down about 1/3 of the the way through the trees and took a photo for the 7 days in B&W running on Facebook. Above we caught sight of tits and a single great spotted woodpecker and were remarking how many species were around when I heard and then saw a goldcrest ... buses eh! I stopped and listed again and thought I could hear firecrest (described to me yesterday on Brownsea by one of the volunteers). I opened the bird identification app on my phone and played the call to confirm. This had the added benefit of drawing in a bird which turned out to be a firecrest [#168]. There turned out to be three and at one point they flew past me so close that I could hear the wingbeat. I ran back to the car to get my camera and managed to get a single photo, not my best but then again not my worst!

Charlotte and I then had a nice stroll along the promenade and on the way back up the hill added a raven, calling loudly from the treetops. Sightings on the Chine (10) included: blue tit, carrion crow, firecrest, goldcrest, great spotted woodpecker, long-tailed tit, magpie, pied wagtail, raven and wren.