On Chesil Beach

Sat high on the shingle. The sweep of the Jurassic coast stretching out all the way to East Devon , bookended on my left by the majestic cliffs of the Isle of Portland. Is there a better place to be? Back to where this blog started. 

My relationship with Weymouth is based round this being Mrs D's ancestral home. We were regular here for a while, then we weren't, and now I'm back for just one weekend only. Hence Saturday evening and I'm parked at Ferrybridge.

Wheatears all over the vegetation, Sandwich Tern, Bar Tailed Godwit, then that walk up the Chesil beach shingle ridge. Two steps up two steps down. I'd forgotten how hard that was. There was a birder on a seat with a scope so I went and imposed myself on him. More Sandwich Terns, Gannets, Guillemot. Strangely after ten minutes of interrogation about local stuff the other birder left and me and my bins were left by ourselves ... some dark geese came in from the west which local social media later informed me were Brent Geese, but in front was a flock of six birds slowly making their way east. Could have been skuas ... I'll never know. A Whimbrel flew past and then that was it.

Sunday morning I managed to grab a couple of hours at Portland. It was pretty quiet by recent standards, but back on the top I found several years of patch watching had slowed down my approach to birding, taking time to watch fields for movement, and I was pretty pleased with my haul of several Wheatears, female Redstart, Sedge Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, and a handful of Whitethroats and Blackcaps as well as Willow Warblers in every bush. Little Owl in its usual place and a Peregrine over completed the set. 

Great to be back, and fingers crossed there might be more such trips. But over too soon and D#2 and I were heading back to Hertfordshire with just one more location on our itinerary.

Two days in Dorset

Day 1 (16th) . A bright, cool day with some SW breeze. Portland Harbour held a Great Northern Diver, a Slavonian Grebe, and 5 Black-Necked Grebes. There were fewer Red-Breasted Mergansers than in previous winters, and a Shag was new for the year.  At Ferrybridge there was 12 Dark Bellied Brent Geese, a few Mediterranean Gulls, and a Sandwich Tern. And absolutely no waders. Then Lodmoor which was fairly quiet although there were 4 Wigeon which I don't often see here, a Marsh Harrier, and offshore a male Common Scoter. 

Shoveler at Lodmoor.

Portland Bill - Gannet, Fulmar, Guillemot and a single Kittiwake were all year ticks, onshore a flock of 10 Rock Pipits, the Obs quarry Little Owl, and up on the top fields a single Short-Eared Owl hunted the fields as the sun began to dip in the west.

Finally Raven. A bird of the wilderness, of the highest, remotest mountain tops, of sheer crags, and of tables at cafes.  I was quite taken aback to see a pair going through the detritus outside the cafe. If I had been sitting on a chair, I would have fallen off it. Close up, in the presence of Jackdaws, they were huge, great glossy black beasts. One flew off in that languid, relaxed way they have, as if they are making a point of it, but the other remained for some poor snaps.

Day 2. Dull, wet. I was going for the GGS at Wareham Forest, but gave that up as a bad job due to the rain. On to RSPB Arne for my first visit, but not, I hope, my last. A smashing reserve with a mixture of scarce habitats. The weather was awful; every time I looked at a bird it was a black blob against a white background through misted-up optics. Nevertheless I got what is a first for me, a Spoonbill that wasn't asleep. It flew in, did that swish-swish feeding thing, throwing up a few morsels in its spatula beak, and then flew off over a party of 20 Avocets. Otherwise it was some woodland birds including a  pair of Treecreepers chasing each other through the trees. One stopped and I guess saw me, because it froze at an awkward angle against a branch, seemingly waiting for me to move on, which I duly did.

Lots added to the YL which now stands at 114. The crawl round the M25 was made more passable by some appropriate music, and what could be more appropriate in they year of rain than When The Levee Breaks?

Back to Weymouth

Bank holiday with the family and Dog.

Saturday I went to Ferrybridge in search of another mis-identified Little Stint.
Knot - 1 juv
Sandwich Tern 3
Barwit 2

lots of Ringed Plover, Dunlin, and Turnstone

Sunday D#2 had avoided going out all day so I persuaded him to go to Lodmoor:

Common Buzzard 1 put up:
Avocet 8 - first at Lodmoor for me.
Blackwit 4
Common Sandpiper 3
Yellow Wagtail 5 went South
lots of other common stuff.

Then Monday morning at the Nothe 2 Willow Warblers and a Wheatear. Sparrowhawk over the marina.

Radipole had a few Common Terns- spent time studying the juvs.

I dipped on Med Gulls - I think there's a few around, but mobile.