Portland - Sat 9 Apr

An early start as myself and three mates set off at 6.20am and headed south, arriving on the Isle of Portland at 7.00am. Our first port of call was Barleycrates Lane in Weston where we took a walk out to West Cliffs and back along Reap Lane to the car. Other than several Wheatears we didn't see much until we were nearly back at the car when I spotted a female Ring Ouzel! A cracking bird and a good start to the day.
We then drove on down to the Bill, and as the Bird Obs car park was full we had to shell out and pay to park. We set off to pick up the target bird as the Short-toed Lark I had seen on Monday was still present and was a UK tick for Steve and John. The bird showed really well in the same field it was in earlier in the week.

A few more Wheatears were also about, including one Greenland Wheatear. A walk up to Top Fields and back down through Culverwell failed to produce any migants, and the Hut Fields were equally unproductive. So we spent twenty minutes sea-watching.
This was also pretty poor, though several Gannets passed through and I got on three "Commic" Terns, but they were too far out to pin them down to a species. Several auks and a few Kittiwakes also passed through.
With our ticket expired we headed back inland and took a walk down to Church Ope cove. However, this also failed to produce any birds, other than a soaring Sparrowhawk, so we called an end to our morning on Portland.