I awoke at 5.00am and could not get back to sleep, so as I had the morning to myself I set off for Portland at 6.00am and arrived at Barleycrates Lane, Portland less than a hour later. Walking along the lane I could hear Blackcaps singing and soon saw one and then a thrush flew out of a patch of ivy and landed in the top of a hedge, a female Ring Ouzel! An excellent start to the day and then a male Ring Ouzel briefly joined the female. I continued along Barleycrates Lane to West Cliffs and then back to the car, adding Willow Warbler to my year list and seeing several Meadow Pipits, a pair of Stonechats and many singing Skylarks.
I then drove down to the Bird Observatory and took a walk out to the Bill. My first stop was the Qinetic compound where I set up my scope and scanned through the gathered auks, and amongst the Guillemots and Razerbills I found a Puffin...as you can no doubt tell from these excellent photos I managed to get with my mobile as the bird bobbed on the waves about half a mile away.
As I watched the Puffin two Somerset birders, Cookie and Alick Simmons joined me, we then walked down to the Obelisk where after an enjoyable chat I did a bit of seawatching whilst the others headed back inland. There was nothing much out to sea, several Gannets flew through as did another Fulmar and a second Puffin.
I then walked up East Cliffs where I saw a White Wagtail and a couple of Wheatears.
I then found a very colourful Rock Pipit and new it must be of the Scandinavian race, littoratis. As I watched the pipit John Rickards walked towards me with Portland regular John Lucas. We all got great views of the pipit down to a couple of metres. The phone then rang and it was Steve Crimp, we had arranged to meet up for the morning and he had not had as good a start to the day, dipping the Hume's Warbler and Richard's Pipit at Wyke Regis along with Steve Chorley and John Oake. About twenty minutes later the boys arrived and we continued our walk around the Bill but added nothing new to the list other then a couple of Swallows that flew in off the sea. Heading back inland Barleycrates Lane was now devoid of birds too so we all decided to stop off at Wyke Regis so the lads could try again for the two rare vagrants!
It was nearly 11.30am when we arrived and as I had promised to be back for lunch I knew I could not linger too long. More Wheatears were seen, as were a few Linnets as we walked bast the Bridging Camp. Out on The Fleet I picked out ten Sandwich Terns, but after half an hour the Hume's Warbler failed to show and I had to head off. Mr Crimp joined me and we bid farewell to the others. Steve and I failed to find the Richard's Pipit too! The phone then rang as John and Chorley had seen the warbler, so Crimper ran back and came on home having already had the bird a week or two earlier. Despite missing out at Wyke Regis I had a brilliant morning out.
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