RSPB LODMOOR + RADIPOLE LAKE - NEWTON'S COVE - PORTLAND HARBOUR (VIEWED FROM WEYMOUTH SAILING CLUB- SANDSFOOT CASTLE - BILLY WINTERS - PORTLAND CASTLE) - CAMP ROAD (THE FLEET) - PORTLAND BILL
WEATHER; cloudy and overcast to start then clear sky and lots of sunshine very light breeze.
It was a lovely day today the weather was just perfect and we saw a great selection of birds, we missed some, but we saw a lot of what we wanted to.
An early morning jaunt to Lodmoor, which is just a stone's throw from our Guest House, was made to look for the Glossy Ibis, it obviously hadn't roosted there so we dipped. We saw a lot of the regular species and we didn't even search for the Green-winged Teal.
It was 8:30am when we met up with Guy Campbell, he was joining us for the day and arrived on time at the swan car park, Radipole. We had a quick scan of the main lagoon of Radipole Lake but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. So, we set off to search for sea birds in Portland Harbour and on Portland.
Newton's Cove sits between Weymouth Harbour and Portland Harbour, it is a small Cove with a man-made rocky breakwater around 3 sides of it. Those rocks provide a perfect habitat for wintering Black Redstarts and Guy found one within 20 seconds of leaving the vehicle! It was a stonking male and it showed down to a few meters, we then found a second Black Redstart and a Great Northern Diver in the Cove.
Black Redstart at Newton's Cove
same bird in different light
Next we parked near the entrance to Weymouth Sailing Club, from there you can scan a large section of Portland Harbour, but before we even starting scanning, a Firecrest called from behind us. It was feeding in a Holme Oak tree and showed intermittently, that's not a bad bird to follow a Black Redstart sighting.
one of the five Great Northern Divers seen from the sailing club
The harbour was flat calm, its not often you see it in this state, so we filled our boots! We found 6 Great Northern Divers, 5 Black-necked Grebes, 7 Common Scoters, lots of Cormorants, Shags, Great Crested Grebes, Red-breatsed Mergansers and all the usual gulls.
We walked up the hill to Sandsfoot Castle and made further searches from the grassy hillocks adjacent to the castle ruins. We added Oystercatcher and Brent Goose to ourt list and we saw another two Great Northern Divers. After sitting in the sunshine drinking hot-chocolate we walked back down the hill to the car. At the car we heard the Firecrest again, this time the bird was low down and showed extremely well, wowza!!
ITS BEHIND YOU! Great Northern Diver from Billy Winters Cafe
From the west side of the harbour we parked at Billy Winters cafe (which was closed) and scanned some more. However, we could only produced much of the same as before. Walking across the main Portland/Weymouth Road we scanned the mudflats of Ferrybridge. Apart from about 500 Mediterranean Gulls we saw two distant Curlews and four Dunlin. A few Oystercatchers fed on the shoreline and we found 3 more Great Northern Divers and a few Red-breasted Merganser in the Fleet and not much else.
the view back towards Sandsfoot Castle and Weymouth from Billy Winters Cafe
We stopped to buy lunch supplies at the Lidl supermarket next to Ham Beach and a quick watch from there produced another Black Redstart. Driving round to Portland Castle we parked up and scanned the harbour from this south-eastern corner. With a different perspective we hoped to find the Black-throated Diver that had been seen in the harbour these past couple of months.
We had sightings of another 5 Great Northern Divers, 3 Razorbills, Cormorants, Shags, Red-breatsed Mergansers, 2 more Black Redstarts, a Kingfisher, Pied Wagtail and a Rock Pipit, but not the target bird, Black-throated Diver.
Brent Geese in the harbour
We got news from some local birders about the sighting of a flock of 7 Cirl Buntings near by, so we went there next, it would have been rude not to!! After a 5 minute drive we parked near a group of local birders and within a minute we had good views of a male Cirl Bunting and at least 4 female types.
We spent 30 minutes watching these rare UK breeding birds, they have recently established a small colony nearby and we hope they continue to prosper.
Juvenile Cirl Bunting
adult female Cirl Bunting
adult male Cirl Bunting
On Portland we parked at the Lower lighthouse Bird Observatory and ate our picnic lunch before walking down to the Portland Bill Lighthouse. From this point the birding went downhill, we dipped on the, almost reliable, Little Owl in the obs Quarry and we saw nothing much on the walk to the Bill. A flock of around 50-60 House Sparrows was impressive, especially in this day and age, we saw a few Linnets, Stonechats and we did see our first Raven of the trip.
We patrolled a good section of the low cliffs around the Bill, our best sighting was that of a single Purple Sandpiper and even then it flew off before everyone had seen it. Passing birds out at sea were few and far beteween, we did see small groups of Guillemots and lots of other auks which we could not identify because of their distance offshore.
The only Purple Sandpiper that was seen today at the Bill
Rock Pipits abound, we saw lots of them, but only one Gannet was seen and that was far out too! It was approaching 3pm when we started our walk back to the Obs Lighthouse, we decided to walk through the 'hut fields' because a Barn Owl had been seen several times recently around 3-4pm flying around the huts.
a Rock Pipit
It was just after 3:45pm when we gave up, and after taking one last look into the Obs Quarry for an non-existent Little Owl, we returned to the terrace at the Obs Lighthouse, spoending another 15 minutes or so searching for the Barn Owl which did not materialise.
So our afternoon birding wasn't so good, but the weather was stupendous, lots of sunshine and no wind as such, we all enjoyed our walk down to the lighthouse regardless of seeing birds or not.