Wednesday 27 April 2011

Nothe Fort, Weymouth - Wed 27 Apr

With term restarting yesterday, it was back to term-time hours and as a result I got my afternoon off so headed down to Weymouth as it was such lovely weather. It was 2.30pm by the time I arrived at the car park at the Nothe and it cost me £2.30 for two hours of parking...rather expensive I thought!
I set about trying to find a Subalpine Warbler that had been seen yesterday afternoon and a couple of times earlier in the day, though the directions of exactly where it was were somewhat vague. I bumped in to a couple of other birders who had a bit more information and we eventually found the area it had been frequenting. Over the next hour I saw a couple of Blackcaps and a very obliging Lesser Whitethroat, but no sign of the Subalpine Warbler.
One of the other birders present then got a bit more info via a phone call to one of his mates, the bird had been seen in the top of a rather large pine tree...most unlike this species as it usually skulks low down in vegetation. However, the tip-off proved spot-on as the Subalpine Warbler was found preening at the top of said tree. I managed to get a good view of it for half a minute or so, and from the colouration it looked like a first-summer male or bright female of the western species.
So after a successful mission and with my car parking money nearly up, it was time to head off back through Weymouth and avoid the rush hour traffic.

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