Abbotsbury & Lodmoor RSPB - Thu 7 Jul

The first day of a four day weekend as I struggle to use up my annual leave entitlement before the end of July. After a relaxing start to the day I headed down to the coast as an adult Long-tailed Skua had been seen at Abbotsbury earlier in the morning. After a steady drive I pulled in to the beach car park and was about to fork out £3.50 to park when I saw Martin Cade, warden of Portland Bird Observatory, who told me to save my money as the bird had not been seen since early morning. So I turned round and drove towards Weymouth, stopping briefly to look over the Swannery. As I 'scoped the pool I saw my first Green Sandpiper of the year and a few Black-tailed Godwits, but little else.
After another quick drive I was in Weymouth and made straight for Lodmoor RSPB Reserve, parking on Beachdown Way before walking round the reserve. Almost the first birds I saw were a couple of Bearded Tits perched up in the reeds and as I continued my walk I saw three recently fledged Cetti's Warblers which looked ridiculously cure as they hoped along the top of a bramble bush before somewhat clumsily flying off.
Continuing on I stopped at the viewpoint ot look over the tern colony and in amongst the Common Terns I located one of the adult Roseate Terns that had been seen earlier in the day. Unfortunately it spent most of its time roosting or in flight so I was only able to get a couple of really dodgy record shots with my mobile.

I then completed the circular walk back to the car, the only other birds of note being a couple of Common Sandpipers, before driving home for lunch.