Weymouth and Portland Bill and Badgers

Badger Portrait - Dorset Badger Watch

Lighthouse at Portland Bill

Bob of the Flowers

Today we wnt birding. From our base in Bournemouth we eventually found the right road and drove east to Weymouth and then south to Portland Bill. Here on a very southern part of the British Isles we looked southward onto the ocean. As [perhaps] usual the wind was blowing and we looked south towards the sea. Out among the waves Guillemots and Razorbills, to a lesser extent, powered over the waves. Joining them was the occasional Gannet. Fulmars - aka - Northern Dwarf Albatross also flew around as did Gulls - Herring, Great Black-backed, Kittiwake plus Sandwich Terns, which was a new trip bird. Both Cormorants and Shags were seen also. With perseverence a couple of Manx Shearwaters were also observed sailing through and with the wind. Heping us navigate these species was a young man, Sean. Sean was a quiet guy with a passion for birds and birding, nature and conservation. He works as a post man and birds whenever he can. Today he birded with us.

the crew overlooking Little Tern nesting area

Under Sean's direction we visited the local Portland Bill Bird Observatory that had been highjacked by Moth enthusiasts who insisted on sharing their night's catch [with just a little too much excitement]. Actually I can't really critique their enthusiasm for moths as it would be interesting to try to work out how many thousand species of moth i have in my yard but the resources simply are not available. In the UK all of the moth species are covered within the confines of a couple of small volumes - over 2400 moth species have been recorded in the British Isles -. The Australian moth fauna is at least 10 times greater  - between 20 000 and 30 000 species have been recorded [with some 400 species of butterfly]. We also had a brief look through the observatory's excellent natural history bookshop. Luckily I left my glasses in the car so i could not really work out what was there.

Butterfly at Lodmor

Next stop was a breeding pair of Peregrines plsu other species in and around a cliff site. Good views of Stock Dove plus annoying miss of a skulking but loud Lesser Whitethroat.

Lunch at a Dorset Nature Cafe was followed by waders - Sandering, Dunlin - both in good colour plus Ringed Plover plus Ruddy Turnstone. Little Egrets plus Oystercatcher were seen befoer a brief visit to a fortified area of shingle that was a breeding area for an important colony of Little Terns.

In the Bader hide - Bob, Carol, June and Berry

A walk around an area adjacent to Lodmor RSPB reserve yielded many Common Swifts, our first Marsh Harrier, breeding Common Terns, a nice party of Long-tailed Tits, Common Pichard and ducklings, Gadwell, Mallard and Tufted Duck with many Shelduck and Canada Geese. Some saw Bull Finch. Cetti's Warbler remained invisible.

Birding finished we drove half and hour north of Weymouth to a farm that was selling Badger viewing. We were [as you can tell from the photos] successful; viewing seven badgers from their hide plus two foxes.





Hungry but contented we drove home to the hotel at Bournemouth.

European Badger - Bimbo!

Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Dunlin in breeding finery - BIRD OF THE DAY!!!!!!

Sly Red Fox

flying Fulmar

Fulmar

male Linnet

Mallard

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Shelduck

Skylark with clover in focus!

Common Starling

left - Sandwich Tern; right - Black-headed Gull

Tufted Duck drake - apparently drunk

Tufted Duck pair

Sea Watching with Sean - our guide

Bournemouth [and district] Birding

Blue Tits - obviously feeding time

Today we joined local birder, Nick, who with his wife Jackie run a small birding company, Two Owls Birding, for a birding trip around the New Forest.

We had a great day exploring the maze of the New Forest area and seeing some great birds along the way. Woodlarks, Redstarts showed well as did an amazing and probably desperate male Wood Warbler. Lapwings and Stock Doves were early trip birds. And we also added to our list Eurasian Curlew, Songlark, Marsh Tit and Hobby. Ws got our best view of Sparrowhawk and incredibly distant views of an accipiter that could have only been Goshawk. Red Kite, Buzzard and Kestrel rounded out our raptors. Tree and Meadow Pipit were seen well.

Meadow Pipit

Mistle Thrush

Wood Warbler - our bird of the day!!!!

Wood Warbler

Woodlark

Woodlark

Raptor Watching - missing the Honey Buzzard....

We also got some mammals; Fallow and Roe Deer plus the feral Grey Squirrel.

distant Roe through the heat haze

Nick saved the best for last when we visited a local moorland for smashing views of Nightjar. That perched for scope views and flew plainly around for all to see. Importantly we got the opportunity to listen to these birds. Woodcock was also seen very well -zooming over our position a number of times, beeping to itself as it sped past. Both of these birds were lifers for me!!

From Wales to Bath To Bournemouth

Bath Bridge - part of this World Heritage area

We left a cold and wet Wales quite early in the morning after a lovely stay in our B&B and drove back to England; to Bath in fact. Bath was wet and crowded and its roads were clogged. It took us a very long time to reach the city centre from its outskirts. Our traffic crawling finally landed us close to town and in our hurry to find a park we pretended we were a bus and parked in a bus and coach parking lot. We paid our money and no one seemed to take offense.

A few of us joined the Mayor's free walking tour of the city and it proved to be be no money well spent. In other clearer words it was good value. It was an interesting guided lesson into Bath's long and varied history, its current architecture and stories of some of the individuals that made a considerable mark on Bath today.

The Circus

Post tour we again crawled slowly out of Bath and had a long trip to the south coast of England; to Bournemouth to be precise. No sat nav proved slightly expensive in terms of time but eventually we found our hotel. Insult was added to injury as we had to limit our late meal time selections to only half of an already small selection.  Still fuel was provided.....

Today, it is certainly, worth a mention was June Harris's birthday. And we celebrated by popping the cork on some champagne and, of course, cutting a cake. And because we had done both of these things we decided to eat a piece of cake and drink some champagne...  

To the centre of Wales continued

Today we went to a Welsh wildlife reserve; Gilfach Farm Reserve before travelling on to a legitimate wildlife spectacle at Gigrin Farm. And following that we visited a nice forested area where we got a tip off about a Welsh specialty - Wood Warbler.

The voted bird of the day was Dipper!

Dipper at Gilfach Farm

Bucolic scene at Gilfach Farm

A hill farm of open moorland, flower-rich grasslands and oak woodland, bissected by the River Marteg, an important tributory of the Upper River Wye. Follow the various walks and nature trails to explore its wilder parts and find out more of its historic past from the Bronze Age tumuli to the Medieval long house and the derelict Mid Wales Railway.

The meadows contain a range of ancient grassland species, including, moonwort, adder's-tongue fern, mountain pansy, parsley fern, heath dog-violet, and eyebright. A large number of waxcap fungi (Hygrocybe spp.) are found across the reserve. The Gilfach nature reserve is particularly rich in lower plants, with 425 species of lichen found to date. The species list for birds is currently over 70, over two-thirds of which breed. Breeders include: red kite, dipper, grey wagtail, pied flycatcher, redstart, wood warbler, tree pipit, raven, whinchat, stonechat, linnet, yellowhammer, siskin, redpoll, marsh and willow tit, stock dove, wheatear, bullfinch, buzzard, kestrel, tawney owl, spotted flycatcher, meadow pipit, skylark. Other visitors include: merlin, sparrowhawk, peregrine, goosander, kingfisher, reed bunting, ring ouzel and osprey. Insects abound; along the river Damselflies such as the beautiful and banded demoiselles and common red damselfly can be seen. Common green grasshopper and bloody-nosed beetle are frequently found in the grasslands. Butterflies include ringlet, small copper, small heath, purple and green hairstreak, dark green and small pearl-bordered fritillary. The old railway cuttings are a great place to spot butterflies. In 2009, the rare Welsh clearwing moth was found on the reserve, the first record for Radnorshire. Larger mammals on the reserve include otter, polecat, stoat, weasel, badger, fox, rabbit, brown hare and hedgehog. In 2009 water voles were recorded on the river for the first time, spreading out from a local colony. Bats hibernating in the railway tunnel include daubenton's, natterer's and brown long-eared among the six species recorded on the reserve.

birding the forest edges at Gilfach Farm

Great Tit checking out my coat

The farm house area had a few feeders that attracted a range of common species.

Tree Pipit

Coal Tit

Gigrin Farm is the place for a spectacular showing of Red Kite.

Red Kite

Red Kite

a quick painting I whipped up.....

Common Buzzard also come in for a feed 

Wood Warbler

Wood Warbler

Wood Warbler