6th-9th July: Dorset
Our first extended visit away from home since lockdown, and it felt so good to be out and about with treasured family members and in beautiful locations.
We visited Portland Bill on our first afternoon, and enjoyed scrambling over the rocks and checking the birdlife out at sea. There was a flock of gulls feeding offshore and many juvenile Gannets with them, plunging powerfully into the sea in search of fish. Around the headland Guillemots and Razorbills could be seen on the sea and flying up to the cliff edges where they were presumably nesting, although this was not visible from the shore.
We had two gloriously sunny days and visited Abbotsbury sub-tropical gardens, with distant views over the Swannery and along the Fleet and Chesil Beach.
By Wednesday, the weather had turned grey. We were up early to search for shearwaters which had been reported in Wyke Regis and at Portland, this time taking our scopes as well as bins! We started at Camp Road in Wyke, but it was drizzling and visibility was very poor. We drove up to Portland, through more drizzling cloud, and both silently felt we were probably wasting our time. However, once we arrived at The Bill, it was considerably brighter and the rain had stopped. It remained very windy, but we strategically positioned ourselves adjacent to a high wall which gave us good shelter. Fortunately there was again a large flock of birds fairly close to the shore. Most of these were Herring Gulls, but as we scanned a couple of Lesser Black Backed Gulls were noted. Towards the back, I spotted some smaller dark birds, and as they flew it was clear from the long, narrow wings that these were shearwaters. Through the scopes we were able to distinguish the plumage colouration that determined we had both Manx Shearwaters and Balearic Shearwaters. These were both new annual ticks, and the Balearics were lifers, so a good result.
We had an hour on our parking ticket and were astonished how this flew by. Good numbers of Guillemot and Razorbills were also amongst the group, their short wings beating rapidly as they flew over the water. A very satisfying morning.
In the afternoon we had a short visit to Lodmoor in Weymouth. This was very quiet although there were good numbers of Common Terns which had successfully reared chicks on the raft in the reserve. Also of interest were many Mediterranean Gulls, and Tim managed a good comparative short highlighting the differences with the inaccurately named Black-headed Gulls, which actually have chocolate brown heads!
On Thursday we headed over to Poole and visited Lytchett Fields with Sue and Keith. We were disappointed not to find any sandpipers, which had been reported the day before, but were very pleased to share in the record count for this site of 15 Little Ringed Plovers. Apparently they have had a good breeding year.
We rounded off our Dorset visit with a walk at Swineham, but apart from a Marsh Harrier there was little of interest here. It was great to be in Dorset, to see family and explore some lovely places - I felt free again, after months of being largely confined to Sussex.
We visited Portland Bill on our first afternoon, and enjoyed scrambling over the rocks and checking the birdlife out at sea. There was a flock of gulls feeding offshore and many juvenile Gannets with them, plunging powerfully into the sea in search of fish. Around the headland Guillemots and Razorbills could be seen on the sea and flying up to the cliff edges where they were presumably nesting, although this was not visible from the shore.
We had two gloriously sunny days and visited Abbotsbury sub-tropical gardens, with distant views over the Swannery and along the Fleet and Chesil Beach.
By Wednesday, the weather had turned grey. We were up early to search for shearwaters which had been reported in Wyke Regis and at Portland, this time taking our scopes as well as bins! We started at Camp Road in Wyke, but it was drizzling and visibility was very poor. We drove up to Portland, through more drizzling cloud, and both silently felt we were probably wasting our time. However, once we arrived at The Bill, it was considerably brighter and the rain had stopped. It remained very windy, but we strategically positioned ourselves adjacent to a high wall which gave us good shelter. Fortunately there was again a large flock of birds fairly close to the shore. Most of these were Herring Gulls, but as we scanned a couple of Lesser Black Backed Gulls were noted. Towards the back, I spotted some smaller dark birds, and as they flew it was clear from the long, narrow wings that these were shearwaters. Through the scopes we were able to distinguish the plumage colouration that determined we had both Manx Shearwaters and Balearic Shearwaters. These were both new annual ticks, and the Balearics were lifers, so a good result.
 |
| Manx Shearwater above, Balearic Shearwater below |
We had an hour on our parking ticket and were astonished how this flew by. Good numbers of Guillemot and Razorbills were also amongst the group, their short wings beating rapidly as they flew over the water. A very satisfying morning.
In the afternoon we had a short visit to Lodmoor in Weymouth. This was very quiet although there were good numbers of Common Terns which had successfully reared chicks on the raft in the reserve. Also of interest were many Mediterranean Gulls, and Tim managed a good comparative short highlighting the differences with the inaccurately named Black-headed Gulls, which actually have chocolate brown heads!
On Thursday we headed over to Poole and visited Lytchett Fields with Sue and Keith. We were disappointed not to find any sandpipers, which had been reported the day before, but were very pleased to share in the record count for this site of 15 Little Ringed Plovers. Apparently they have had a good breeding year.
We rounded off our Dorset visit with a walk at Swineham, but apart from a Marsh Harrier there was little of interest here. It was great to be in Dorset, to see family and explore some lovely places - I felt free again, after months of being largely confined to Sussex.
Comments