Portland Again!

Well for the second time this year I visited Portland Bird Observatory for a few days for a combined birding/photography trip. The former was somewhat difficult with a real lack of scarce birds - the best being two of the least cooperative I have ever come across...

Red-Necked Grebe

Pomarine Skua

Two species of owl were seen and both in exactly the same area, a small disused quarry. Although both are species I can find locally, it was nice to be able to see them in an entirely different context

Barn Owl

Little Owl

Before we get onto some half decent photos, a few more 'record shots' from the trip include...

Black Redstart

Kittiwake

Whilst the birding was considered fairly dull by the locals, many of the species seen (including those above) are extremely rare locally, so it was good to be able to photograph these for the first time. One bird I was particularly pleased to see was the Purple Sandpiper. I have seen this a couple of times before but on this occasion the showed exceedingly well feeding amongst the rocks...

Purple Sandpiper

And being within such close proximity to Weymouth, photographing shags was certainly not unexpected!

It was great fun watching them struggle amongst the waves that followed storm Jude (which as a side note was one of the most mundane weather events I have ever witnessed)...

The Rock Pipit is another scarcity in my local area, though at Portland they were plentiful with flocks of 20+ seen along the clifftops on some occasions...

 And my favourite...

And last but by no means least, the Arctic Tern. With Autumnwatch's theme this past week being 'Migration', this seems a particularly fitting bird to end on. This bird is a juvenile, born earlier this year, however by the time it dies, it may have undergone the longest distance travelled by any species of animal. With a migration that totals 44,000 miles a year, in its lifetime this bird will fly a distance equivalent to 3 round trips to the moon, an incredible feat and a beautiful bird!

Arctic Tern

Portland Bill

A slightly rushed post this unfortunately that will include some photography and birding elements to it (mainly the latter!) as for the past 4 nights I have been staying at the Portland Bird Observatory. The weather was sunny which was great for everyone except those who wanted to see some birds and the wind direction was hopeless...still I saw a lot of species that in my neck of the woods would be amazingly rare.

On all 4 days numbers of Yellow Wagtails (peaking at 200) and Wheatear (peaking at 150) were impressive and far better than the odd two or three I see on my local patch!

Wheatear

Wheatear (it was interesting to note the extreme variation among this species)

Ravens were widespread and Little Owls we fairly common amongst the many quarries on the island...

Raven

Little Owl

Right now onto some migrants!

A nightingale was present throughout my stay though as always with this species proved very elusive.

Nightingale

Nightingale

It is astonishing to think that this small butterfly has possibly flown all the way from Southern Europe!

Clouded Yellow

Whilst seeing species in the hand is never as good as in the field, it was great to have the opportunity to see the birds up close.

By far my favourite part of the trip was the sea-watching. For photography it was absolutely useless (I really need to go on a pelagic trip!) but for birding it offered two lifers for me and some fairly close views of both. 

Balearic Shearwater passage was slow for the first couple of days but by the end of the week was amazing, with 382 counted on my final day (a portland record?). This is a species the IUCN view as 'critically endangered' so to see this number (sometimes in flocks of over 50 birds was really quite remarkable!)....

Balearic Shearwater

Balearic Shearwater

Balearic Shearwater (!!)

It's always nice to find your own birds and on Friday evening, whilst photographing the Balearics I was astonished to find this Long-Tailed Skua flying around offshore. Typically no-one else was around to enjoy this bird!

Long-Tailed Skua

Long-Tailed Skua

And finally to finish off some half-decent photographs of two species I have never really photographed well before, the Linnet and Kestrel...

Kestrel

Linnet

Linnet

Just a quick thank you to the Portland Bird Observatory for their great hospitality and company, as well as the BTO who funded me for this trip... I will no doubt be returning next year! As always thanks for reading!