Six days earlier I tried to see the Whiskered Tern at Abbotsbury Swannery but unfortunately missed the bird. I now believe that this was because the bird had left the site and had departed for Longham Lakes.
So today we were heading back home and passing fairly close to Longham Lakes. So a stop off and a short walk to view the bird was called for. Unfortunately the bird was always distant, so poor phots.
Whiskered Tern - Above photo taken with mobile phone. The one below taken with Micro 4/3rds camera.
A fairly brief visit to Ferrybridge found no waders at all, so I decided to walk along to the Little Tern colony on Chesil Beach. Along the way there was a mass of stunning Thrift in flower and about four Wheatears. Also present was a very active 100 strong flock of Linnets and a surprise and rather distant Merlin.
Later in the day I went back to the area to try and see an Alpine Swift that had been reported at nearby Fortuneswell. Unfortunately the bird had disappeared just as the rain started.
The area of Thrift
The Fleet from Chesil Beach
Wheatear - one of about four seen.
Little Terns - Very distant in their fenced and wardened breeding area. One looks to have a black bill - Hmm?
Linnet - Many there but difficult to get close to.
Chesil Beach with the Little Tern colony on the right overlooking the Fleet
The intention was to seawatch for a couple of hours but as I drove along the road towards the observatory there were half a dozen birders at the side of the road watching something. I stopped and managed some brief views of a Chough before it flew off! It was the first in Dorset for over 20 years I gather and it brought all of the local birders out to tick it. I carried on down to the car park and there was the Chough be chased by two Jackdaws. I then had some close but brief views near the huts but it was fairly mobile. Rather than chase it all morning I decided to try and see the Serin that had been seen earlier that morning. However it was not seen again all morning. I did stop off to look in the quarry near the Obs and there was the regular Little Owl.
So I then went sea watching for an hour or two. There was nothing of great note to be seen but there were birds milling around everywhere. Huge number of Herring Gulls and quite a lot of Gannets and Kittiwakes offshore. Regular Guillemots returning to the breeding colony. A single Fulmar and Shags were the best birds.
Portland Bill Lighthouse
Chough - Getting down to some serious feeding!
Chough - It was very flighty
Chough - Not great photos but in a rush before it flew off!
I wasn't planning to visit Lodmoor this morning but when news came through of a Laughing Gull being seen, I had to pop along. I was only 15 minutes walk away so I was soon there only to find that there had been an ID issue and the bird was in fact a Black-headed Gull! There quite a few unhappy local birders!
I decided to do a circuit of the southern part of the reserve anyway. There were quite a few Warblers signing including Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats, Reed Warblers and Cetti's Warblers. A male Marsh Harrier was displaying. There were surprisingly few waders present apart from the Oystercatchers that are presumably breeding but I did get a glimpse of a Common Sandpiper and two Dunlin that flew in. The Common Terns were active breeding wise on an island, along with many Black-headed Gulls.
Just as I was about to leave I spotted an Iceland Gull resting on an island with some Herring Gulls. I moved to get a better view and get a few photos. The bird has apparently been in the area for several months and had been seen at Lodmoor the previous day. It apparently get in Weymouth Bay so there is a chance of seeing it from our accommodation.
This was not quite in the league of the rare gull that I had hoped for but nether the less a nice consolation.
A few other birds posed for photos at Lodmoor including quite a few Mediterranean Gulls, which are not at all common in Bucks! Several Lesser Whitethroats were nice.
Iceland Gull
Showing the white wing tips nicely.
A short video clip of the bird.
Grey Heron - This was so close to the footpath that I just had to take a photo!
Mediterranean Gull - One of many seen.
Dunlin - A flock of 21 birds dropped in
A Lesser Whitethroat doing it's best to stay hidden while feeding and singing.
I was already in Weymouth for the week so it seemed silly not to go and try and see the Tawny Pipit that had been on Cogden Beach (30 mins west of Weymouth) for the previous couple of days.
I arrived at about 9:15am and walked along the beach towards where the bird had been reported earlier that morning. No other birders were in sight as I walked along the beach, so I was searching for the bird on my own. I had gone past the likely area when another birder joined me and we carried on further still up the beach and before long we found it. It did not us getting too close and it was difficult to follow on the ground as it merged in really well with the habitat. I watched it for a time, took a few photos and headed back to the car park.
Also seen along the beach were a couple of Wheatear with one or two Whinchat on the scrub at the back edge of the beach. Also in the scrub were good numbers of Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroats, plus a single Sedge Warbler. Cetti's Warblers were singing in the reed covered lagoons.
Cogden Beach - Huge and a great diversity of plants which provided good cover for the bird.
Cogden Beach - Looking west. Super habitat for migrant birds.
Tawny Pipit - Taken at a distance and in blustery conditions, so the photos were not the best!
Tawny Pipit
Whinchat - presumably a new arrival.
I then moved to Abbotsbury in an attempt to see the Whiskered Tern that had been present for the previous six days. I decided to walk to the "tank teeth" along the Chesil Beach as it had been seen from there several times, including that morning. Unfortunately it had not been seen in the two hours before I got there and not during the two hours I spent there.
I have only ever seen one Hoopoe in the county before and that was back in May 2011. So when news came through of one at Hedgerley Green I had to change my plans for the afternoon and take a look.
I arrived to find a few local birders leaving the site or still looking at the bird. The finder Colin Barnes had close views of the bird feeding on a roadside green but since then it had moved to a nearby paddock and so was much more difficult to see. So the photos below are pretty poor taken at a distance and through a farm gate.
