More Portland

The Dipperettes have taken a liking to Portland Bill. A bracing walk along the cliffs, some excellent artery-clogging fare from the Café and a quick game of cricket. Somewhere in all this there’s a chance to sneak a look for passing birds and take some pics.

Last week we wandered up the cliffs, which are alive with flora slightly past their peak. One of these is Sea Samphire - any information on the others welcome. We didn’t get as far as the Autumn Ladies Tresses.

We saw some nice fossil shells in various blocks of rocks, and a smashing ammonite. We couldn’t take it home unfortunately. Not without making someone’s beach hut collapse.

Ferrybridge 22 Aug

Couple of hours this morning. Lodmoor or Ferrybridge? In fact I could have gone anywhere today - even Radipole - and seen decent birds. I stuck the weather map for the 22nd up as a reminder; if I see this again at this time of year, get out birdwatching.

Ferrybridge won, and I was rewarded with a couple of Avocets drifting east over the back of the Chesil Beach, 3 Sanderling and the usual suspects on the beach, and a juv Black Tern in Portland harbour, with obvious movement around (Wheatear at Small Mouth, for instance).

But I felt strangely unexcited by it all. Probably because the Avocets were pointed out to me (I spent some time wondering if they weren't Gannets - no really - but wiser heads than me were satisfied), and the Black Tern likewise. I guess everyone goes birdwatching for different reasons, but for me the adrenalin of the moment of discovery, the uncertainty, and the challenge of identification is a big reason, and when everything is pointed out it loses a bit of the fun.

Gulls that are common (not Common Gulls)

Anyone browsing pictures on the web for information on gulls in Britain would think that Med Gulls and Yellow-Legged Gulls were commonest, and wouldn’t know that Common Gulls existed.

So to start to remedy that I went down to the boating lake and clicked away at this year’s crop of Herring Gulls.

Weymouth Summary

Lodmoor: 5th 7:30 pm. 8th 8 am. 11th 8 am. Radipole 8th 5pm. Ferrybridge 5th 7:30 am. Maiden Castle 10th, Portland Bill 10th. Weather bright, hot, sunny all week. Usually clear blue skies. At last!

Cormorant. 1 immature at Radipole had clearly a fish which was still a visible bulge in its throat. It kept drinking water and standing on an emerged rock and stretching. Eventually it had had enough and barfed up the fish, which presumably swam off to count its blessings. I’d brought my camera but not my brains so missed the shot.
Little Egret a flock of 9 at Radipole, plus other isingles.
Grey Heron. Some of this year’s offspring were in evidence.
Knot. 1 beautiful moulting adult at Lodmoor on 8th. My first at Lodmoor?
Oystercatcher. 2 ad and 1 juv at Lodmoor. One ad had muddy legs and beak from constantly finding worms, running the gauntlet of harassing BH Gulls, and presenting them to the juv to eat, which gulped them down then requested more. So it’s not just me that has a life like that then.
Black-Tailed Godwit c10
Redshank 2 Lodmoor
Wood Sandpiper, 2 at Lodmoor on 11th. As always, beautifully elegant birds that look like they should be somewhere a lot smarter than a grubby puddle.
Common Sandpiper 2-3 at Lodmoor
Sanderling 2 at Ferrybridge
Curlew 1 at Ferrybridge.
Snipe 1 at Ldmoor 11th.
Black-Headed Gull c200 at Lodmoor, including
Mediterranean Gull. At Lodmoor, 3 on 5th (2 1st winter + 1 juv), 1 on 8th (1 ad/3rd summer?), 0 on 11th, probably due to lack of interest. Searching for Med Gulls is one of those things that starts off as “I’ll have a quick look and see if I spot one”, and ends up on the 10th sweep going “come on you b******, I know you’re there, give yourself up!”
Common Tern. C10 left at Lodmoor, with most juvs flying.
Sparrowhawk 1 f at Lodmoor on 5th
Kestrel. 1 at Lodmoor 5th, 1 at Maiden Castle.
Peregrine. The waders at Ferrybridge are used to disturbances, so when every bird on the south side headed off east like their lives depended on it, a raptor was clearly around. A minute later, a huge brown Peregrine came through like a rocket.
Yellow Wagtail 2 at Lodmoor on 11th
Pied Wagtail c20 Lodmoor.
Wheatear 3 at Maiden Castle.
Stonechat. 1 at Maiden Castle.
Skylark 2 at Maiden Castle.
Hirundines. Good numbers of Swallows and House Martins throughout.

Finally, D#2 looked up from taking guard at Portland Bill expecting his father to be preparing to bowl at him, only to see me running madly after a butterfly. It was big, like a Painted Lady yet not a Painted Lady. Given there have been a few sightings of Large Tortoiseshell, this is one that got away.

favourite bird

In Weymouth this week with the family. Will write up later, but meanwhile one of my favourite birds turned up at Lodmoor.

Short Walk South of Sawbridgeworth

D#2 was having his cricket session at the cricket club this morning so I took the opportunity to investigate the flooded field by the river.

At Sheering Mill Lane a Hobby went through. My first for the town itself.

On the flooded field, c50 Black-Headed Gulls, a resting Common Tern, a Lapwing, some Pied Wagtails and a good number of Swallows and House Martins over the pond.

Back up through the rough fields to Bonks Hill. A patch of willows and bushes had a Spotted Flycatcher, a male Blackcap, a Garden Warbler and a Willow Warbler .

interim

I'm back working again, this time in central London. Not much to report, except a Peregrine slipped past the Old Bailey, then past St Paul's and off towards Tate Modern which I'm, guessing is its home.

So a wrap up of Weymouth.

1. Returning from Portland to Weymouth along the Fleet road I found myself wondering why I was looking at two crows, and then realised its because they were Peregrine falcons!

2. Ferrybridge had a couple of Dunlins and a coupled of Sanderlings. Have the Sanderlings been here all summer?

3. Back at Lodmoor the following day. More of everything but still no Roseate Terns. The Blackwits were givng terrific views close up - of course I had no camera. A local was trying to sex them and was concluding that they were all males. the logic would be: Males mate and push off mid July. The females incubate and push off early August. The juveniles come through in September. Anyone know if this makes sense?

4. I went to Badbury Rings. Aidan Brown has reported from Badbury Rings on a number of occasions with terrific close-ups of orchids and butterflies. The rings are not particularly extensive in area, so surely even I could clean up here.

No need to fill in the details. It was wet underfoot, the wind blew, I saw two species of orchid. Yes, two. I saw a few Fritillary butterflies, but they whizzed off before I could get a photo. I did get a photo of a Marbled White, but that's because it was dead.

August should have a few more opportunities.

Portland 12th July

I sat on the end of Portland Bill for a while in the evening attempting to take flight shots. The wind was a W/SW strong enough to deliver a dose of spray on the camera lens and threaten the stability of the scope. There was a steady light stream of Gannets and Manx Shearwater, with various Auks, a Fulmar, and a Shag close in.

Any day when there are Gannets about is a good day, particularly so if it’s a dull windy day. The white of the adults seems to be so bright they glow. There are a number of great pictures of gannets on other blogs (eg here), but they are mainly of Gannets lah-di-dahing around on nice sunny days. To really appreciate their flying abilities I think you need to see them when there’s a gale blowing.

Pics taken on Canon 30D, 100-400mm IS, 1.4x converter, so manual focussing.

Finally, I wasn’t the only one taken with the cream teas at the Portland Bill Café.

Needs Must – Lodmoor 12th July

In an ideal world, as soon as a decent bird popped up in Weymouth area on Birdguides I would be down to see it. So far this month I’d have a good chance of Squacco Heron, Storm Petrel, and Roseate Tern. In reality chances to come down midweek for extended birdwatching are few and far between, and the visit this Thursday and Friday was arranged long in advance.

I turned up at Lodmoor from 10-12. I spent ages going through the Terns, didn’t get the Roseate but did find the Arctic Tern. It’s an embarrassingly long time since I’ve seen one, and I spent a bit of time making sure – but the give away for me was that if the legs had been any shorter it would have been sat down. Here’s a high-mag join-the-dots version.

Otherwise, autumn has kicked off. about 10 Black-Tailed Godwits in fantastic summer plumage, a Common Sandpiper, an adult and juvenile Little-Ringed Plover, a couple of Lapwings. Juvenile Shelducks, BH Gulls, Oyk, and post-dispersal congregation of Little Egrets and BH Gulls.

I visited Radipole, Portland and Ferrybridge later in the day. I’ll do those in a separate blog entry. Don’t hold your breath.

SAL

Stansted Airport Lagoons is our local oasis in the desert that is East Hertfordshire. It’s been coming into its own recently with a few passage waders, and Butterflies and Odonata beginning to appear in numbers. A locally scarce Moth was found yesterday, so I was quite sure when I arrived this morning of finding a few others around but it wasn’t to be, unless my inability to see wildlife right in front of me has now extended to people.

Here’s the list (accuracy and completeness not guaranteed). Coot, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Swallow, House Martin, Sand Martin, Swift, Grey Wagtail, Linnet, Goldfinch, Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Cormorant 5, Grey Wagtail, Blue Tit, Wren (family party). Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Skipper, a smashing Comma. Three Odonates.

Broxbourne Wood

The guide book says early July, between 10 and 11 in the morning is the best time to see Purple Emperor, and Broxbourne wood is the best local place. Steve picked me and D#2 up, and by the allotted time we were at the place. We knew we were in the right place when everyone and their uncle turned up and stood in The Place and looked at The Tree.

Predictably we didn’t see the Purple Emperor, but we did see lots more. We saw White Admiral, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Comma, Small Skipper, Speckled Wood, various whites, and a Purple Hairstreak came down to pose for some photos. We also had a heavily pregnant Common Lizard and a normal one, and a Hornet. All in all quite a collection. The butterflies were generally a bit washed out and moth-eaten, but smashing to see all the same. We didn’t have time to be disappointed by the no-show..

We bumped into a couple of other Stortford birders, and Andrew Middleton and Liz Goodyear from the Butterfly Conservation Soc turned up with their magic bucket from which they dispensed the Butterfly version of crack cocaine over various logs (see Hornet photo). It was a pleasure to spend time with a couple of dedicated experts discussing the finer points of Butterfly behaviour, distribution and conservation.

Some pics: Canon 30D, 28-80 mm lens (I think) and a clumsy user still having problems getting all the settings right.