We left Radipole and drove out to Sandsfoot Castle overlooking Portland Harbour. There was a bit of drizzle in the air but nothing that hampered our views out over the water and before long Steve had found a Great Northern Diver, and I quickly got my eye in and located a couple of Black-necked Grebes. Also in the harbour we saw several Great Crested Grebes and Red-breasted Mergansers, but no other divers unfortunately, so we headed off again.
We drove straight out to Portland Bird Observatory and parked and then walked down to The Bill. We spent about quarter of an hour sea-watching, seeing numerous Gannets and Kittiwakes and countless Guillemots and Razerbills. With our fingers getting cold in the wind we packed up our scopes and started searching for the wintering Purple Sandpipers. It took us a while, but eventually we tracked down the small flock of seven or eight Purple Sandpipers feeding on the surf-sprayed rocks. It was now getting on a bit, so I phoned Ellie to tell her that I would not be back home by 1.00pm! Fortunately, she was fine with this so I did not need to rush back home. As a result we decided to drive along the coast to Abbotsbury.
Before too long we had arrived at Abbotsbury and parked up overlooking the Swannery. We were hoping to see the flock of eighty or so Barnacle Geese that had been in the area for a few weeks, but there was no sign of the birds...but we got lucky as John spotted a superb male Hen Harrier hunting over the reeds before it flew out over the fields and was lost to view.
It was now getting rather cold and damp, so we set off for home with a brief and unsuccessful stop at West Bexington where we were hoping to see a couple of Velvet Scoter. So after a pretty productive day out and about in Dorset we got back at 3.30pm.
UK list for 2011 now at 106 species.
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