Weymouth & Portland - Sat 3 Jan

Today I managed a day out birding with Steve and Steve, two of my oldest friends and fellow birders. We had planned on stopping at a couple of sites on our way down to Weymouth, but heavy rain meant a slight change to the schedule and instead our first quality stop of the day was at Ferrybridge.
A quick stop produced five Pale-bellied Brent Geese amongst the flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese, but with nothing much else to be seen we drove round to Portland Castle for a while. Before too long I had managed to locate both the female Eider and the Black Guillemot, both of which had been around for a while. A single Great Northern Diver was also noted before we headed up to Portland Bill.
Parking at the Bird Observatory we walked down to the Bill, stopping at the "Obs Quarry" to pick up Little Owl. At the Bill we bumped in to friends from Reading who were day-tripping and after a quick catch up we set off to try and find a few bits and pieces. After a bit of a struggle we finally found five Purple Sandpipers on the rocks with a couple of Turnstones. The wind was blowing hard so this made sea-watching tricky, a few Gannets and Kittiwakes along with a movement of Razorbills and Guillemots was all we could manage.
Back to the car and a brief stop at Pennsylvania Castle woods where we added Blackcap and Chiffchaff to the list and then off Portland and in to Weymouth.
We made straight for the eastern end of the town and the walk up to Redcliff Point where a Richard's Pipit had been lingering. With very little effort we soon found the bird and were treated to some cracking views.

 

 

Whilst watching the Richard's Pipit we got a tip off about some Black Redstarts in Weymouth proper so back to the car and off again.
Parking near Nothe Fort we walked around to Newton's Cove and after a fair bit of searching found three Black Redstarts, whilst in the bay four Slavonian Grebes were seen. Time was starting to creep by, so off again and we headed to Langton Herring.
Arriving in the village we parked the car and walked out towards Rodden Hive, and a very smart male Marsh Harrier flew by as we trudged along. Reaching the water we were treated to a mass of birds, with large numbers of Coot, Wigeon, Teal, and Pintail plus a few waders, including a Greenshank. The fields behind held lots of Dark-bellied Brent Geese and forty Barnacle Geese, but despite searching we could not find the Greenland White-fronted Goose that had been seen on and off in the area.
Back to the car again and our final stop of the day was Abbotsbury, but the rain had returned making scanning The Fleet all but impossible, so we called it a day and came on home. All in all a great day out despite inclement weather and it was goof to catch up with some good friends.
UK list for 2015 now at 100 species.