Abbotsbury & West Bexington - Sun 2 Sep

I had originally planned for an early start and full morning of birding as it was Family Service at church so Ellie usually takes Tristan along, however, we were all exhausted so I spent the first part of the morning entertaining Tristan whist Ellie caught up with some much needed sleep. Anyway, by 9.15am I was on the road and decided to head down to the Dorset coast as I only had a couple of hours to get in some birding due to the fact we were off to a wedding vow renewal service at 1.00pm.
So it was a bit of a rush and I headed straight for Abbotsbury in the hope that the juvenile Black Tern that had been present for a couple of days would still be about...it wasn't. In fact there was very little of note so I did not hang around long and simply drove further down the coast to West Bexington.
When I arrived I bumped in to Mike Morse, a West Bexington stalwart and fellow table tennis player, and he soon updated me on the Wryneck that was present (whether or not this is the same bird I tried to see a week or so ago with Ellie and Tristan, I do not know). As I neared the location a couple of other birders (including Somerset lads Cookie and Alick) were present and a glimpse through the reeds yielded this:

So target located and I then moved a little further down the beach to try and get a better angle, and I was lucky enough to be able to watch the Wryneck for five minutes as it sat on a fence post.

 

 

It eventually flew on to the path and vanished in to a small patch of vegetation, so I left it alone and walked back to the car. Other than a Wheatear and being attacked by a dog it was an uneventful return journey and a brief seawatch failed to produce anything.
So I retraced my steps and headed back to Abbotsbury to see if the tern had appeared...it hadn't. There was still nothing much of note so at 11.00am I drove back home (a slight detour to Sutton Bingham also failed to produce anything!).