A Ton of Chiffs

For many months my exercise regime has been ticking along at 'non-existent' level. Everything went to pot some time before last summer began, and the consequences are visible right there in the outer reaches of my belt. We are in no-spare-holes territory. Desperate straits... So yesterday I dusted down my trusty old Orbit America and mounted it on a turbo-trainer in the man cave. This morning, before the sun had risen, I climbed aboard and cranked out 20 minutes of feebleness...

It was pathetic. But it was a start.

After lunch I burned some more calories by going out birding. But at the pace I walk, not many calories, and certainly not enough to offset the several shortbread rounds that troubled me for their attention at coffee time. So yes, that's something else that's got to change - the biscuit intake. Sigh...

Anyway, once again I tried to do something a little different this afternoon, and spent most of it investigating the Bride Valley, which runs from Burton Bradstock towards Litton Cheney. The stand-out highlight was Water Lane Fish Farm, again somewhere I had previously spotted on the map but never visited...

Water Lane Fish Farm

There is no general access to the place, but a footpath crosses it, so at least you can view across the ponds. Overhead there is a massive network of fine lines, presumably to dissuade birds like Herons and Cormorants from dropping in for freebies, and a modern otter fence surrounds the entire site. Bird-wise there wasn't much to see, but I did spot a Kingfisher, 3 Tufties and these...

Not fish farmers. So the overhead lines don't make the place burglar-proof...

The best feature of the fish farm was its approach road...

Track to Water Lane Fish Farm. Chiffies live here.

I spent quite a lot of time along this track, and counted about 10 Chiffchaffs. Try as I might (and I did) none was a tristis. I know it's a bit wrong, but I felt slightly diddled. So spoiled have I been that anywhere with a double-figure Chiffy count I am almost expecting to hold a Sibe Chiff too. There were also a couple of Goldcrests and a few Long-tailed Tits. Clearly there is plenty of food hatching out of that little ditch.

This Chiff sat here in the sunshine for ages. As soon as I got nearer though...gone.

I just wanted to include this next photo to demonstrate how effectively the P900 can focus past the foreground 'interference' on occasion. A good reason why it is worthwhile setting both the metering and focus on 'spot'. It doesn't work every time, but if you can get close enough to pick out a bit of bird through the twigs and leaves the camera is pretty good at focusing on it. And if you are too far away for that, chances are at least fair to middling that the depth of field will take care of things anyway...

In-focus Chiff through the twigs. Incidentally, it is notable how the legs of a regular collybita Chiff generally look rather red-brown, compared to proper black in tristis.

Nowhere else I tried this afternoon produced anything of interest, but it was nice to investigate these quiet corners anyway. The fish farm site was a pleasant surprise though, and one to note for the future. I finished the day at Cogden Beach, where I saw the orange-fire sun slip all too rapidly below the horizon, but very little else. All in all, a very relaxing bit of birding...

One final thought. Today's bunch of Chiffs got me wondering how many I've actually seen this winter. Adding up the counts from Colyton and Kilmington WTW, Chideock and Puncknowle WRC, the Water Lane Fish Farm and a couple of single birds here and there, I reckon a total of 100 birds is not an exaggeration. One hundred Chiffchaffs! And that's just me. How many others are out there?