Trip reports

Portland Bill and Weymouth

Saturday, 19 September 2009

Luckily for the 15 members who boarded the minibus, the fresh breezes of the last few days had died down just in time for what might have been a chilly day out by the sea! At first it was cloudy, but not for long! Out came the sun, leading to a general striptease and this lasted all day. It was rather quiet at the Bill, as for some reason that wryneck we had been promised had gone awry and the short-eared owl, that had been spotted by the 'early birds', had made his stay a short one. However, down on the rocks we were rewarded by the sight of a number of wheatears, pied wagtails and a few rock pipits plus lots of herring gulls of course! We circled round towards the observatory and made for the quarry, where we spent a long time waiting to see if the owl would appear! No luck! However, Rosina spied something in the bushes that had a white throat and when it too had vanished, the books came out to help identify it as a lesser whitethroat. While at the quarry the butterfly enthusiasts were busy at work and identified
speckled wood, all the whites, common blue then, the highlight of our day, a beautiful pair of small coppers mating! But dinner was calling, so we made our way back to the minibus, stopping on the way to peer through telescopes to work out that there were two buzzards perched on posts up the hill, and was it two wood pigeons as well?
After our picnic it was suggested that we leave the Bill and make our way via Ferrybridge (where there seemed to be more people than birds) to Lodmore. We wandered between the reeds, passing a group of mallards in the ditch, and on to find open water and the odd coot (surprise, surprise), black-headed gulls, a few lapwings and the usual cormorants . . . then somebody saw a common sandpiper who continued to feed in full view of our telescopes. Some black-tailed godwits were also feeding and a small group of dunlin arrived. If it was quiet at the Bill, it certainly wasn't at Lodmore with groups of Canada geese flying in with their usual joyful honking to join the flock that formed the backdrop to our viewing! And so it was time to go back, but not before a little grebe appeared, playing hide and seek.
I enjoyed the day very much and clocked up 34 birds, 8 butterflies and 8 less usual flowers in my little book. Many thanks to Tony for a well organised trip, and to our intrepid driver for transporting us in comfort! Faith Blackmore