Friday, July 18, 2008 - All at Sea at Portland
For some time now I'd been planning a trip down to Portland Bill to do a spot of sea watching. I'd not been on one of my half day off trips for over a month now so I figured that I could afford to give myself the whole day off for this trip. Sea watching is still very new to me and I wanted to learn more about it as well as to see some interesting birds. Balearic and manx sheerwaters were a particular target as well as the possibility of some skuas and perhaps even a late puffin. In addition there was the long staying hooded merganser at Radipole lake and I was thinking that I may even find some bearded tits at the Radipole RSPB reserve so there were plenty of things to look out for as an incentive for what would be a rather long drive down from Oxford.
This was by far the furthest I'd been on a birding trip so far and although it was only about 140 miles there are plenty of parts on the route which are single carriage-way A roads so one is limited as to how fast one can travel. I set off at about 6:30am and on the way down I chose to go via the M3/M27 which took longer than anticipated. In addition there was a half hour wait coming into Weymouth due to road works which was most frustrating so by the time I actually got to Portland Bill the journey had taken 3.25 hours.
I expected there to be several other birders there but when I arrived I was on my own. I set up on the leeward side of the monument and started watching. There were plenty of gannets going through and a few gulls but little else. After about half an hour another couple of birders arrived, I'm guessing a father and grown-up son. The son seemed pretty hot on sea watching and within a few minutes of arrival he'd seen a guillemot and a kittiwake going past and soon after he spotted a balearic sheerwater as well. One thing I've learnt is that even if someone is giving helpful commentary as to where a bird is ("just passing the buoy now about 2/3 of the way towards the horizon" etc.) is is incredibly difficult to pick up on a bird that someone else has seen. Neither myself nor the father managed to see this sheerwater at all. A little while later he spotted an arctic skua and again despite the helpful commentary the two of us couldn't find it at all. Apart from those two sightings there was very little happening and we all agreed that it was pretty hard work. I did manage to spot a guillemot flying through and I did see a kittewake that the son had found and I managed to latch on to.
After a couple of hours of fruitless searching my eyes were starting to complain so I decided to take a break. I walked up towards the west cliffs to see if there were any tardy awks around. This walk around the Admiralty buildings takes you through some grassy meadows where there were quite a few rock pipts around doing their display flights. At the cliffs there were a few cormorants/shags and a few guillemots out on the sea but little else. I decided to return to the monument for a another go and on the way back met a couple of other birders who'd been watching just around the corner. They'd not seen much either and were interested to hear about the loan balearic sighting. Indeed they were wondering how they'd missed it until I said that the bird had apparently doubled back on itself so wouldn't have passed them. They decided to come round to the monument for a bit of a go themselves so the three of us settle down to it once more. One of them soon picked up a storm petrel going through but once again I failed miserably to latch on to it. I did managed to spot a fulmar flying through though despite my commentary they couldn't pick up on it either. My eyes were compaining about the constant peering through the scope for so long so I decided to call it a day and to head off to some of the other sites down here.
The next stop was Ferrybridge, the end of Chesil beach and the site of a little tern colony as well as some mud flats for waders. Unfortunately the little terns had all left, there was not even a loan straggler to be seen. On the mud flats were a few black-headed gulls (no med. gulls in amongst them), some redshank, dunlin and ringed plovers. There was also a lone sanderling looking rather smart in summer plumage. I traipsed over the top of the shingle pile to have a brief look at the sea there but there was little to see. I decided to head on to Radipole to see if I could turn up anything interesting there.
On Radipole lake a first summer drake hooded merganser had been around for some time and I was relying on this as at least one "sure thing" for the trip. I walked over to the area where the bird was and had a good look around. The area in question was actually rather small so there was not much room for missing the bird but somehow I couldn't see it. I even walked all around the three sides but still no luck. By now I was starting to get rather frustrated as I'd managed not to see any of my target birds so far. If I was going to be the first birder to actually dip out on this hooded merganser then that would be a great pain. As I was walking back over the bridge I saw a lady with binoculars peering over the bridge. I asked her if she was looking for the merganser and she said "yes and it's right there!" and indeed it was. The bird was diving constantly and I must have been looking in the right area just as it was underwater. I even managed to take a digiscoped shot of it, which was no mean feat as it spent so little time above water.
 The hooded merganser
Having achieved at least one target, I decided to have a walk around Radipole RSPB reserve to see if I could find a bearded tit. The wardens said that whilst they were around at this time of year it was very difficult to see them. Apparently they change their diet and eat insects during the summer and seeds at winter so at winter can often be seen on the heads of the reeds. I thought that I would give it a try anyway so I headed off. All the recent rain had meant that the reeds were in fact above head height and there was very little to see. There were a few water fowl about and reed and sedge warblers could be seen and heard and I did manage a brief glimpse of a cetti's warbler but that was about it. On the main island by the reserve there was a sleeping common sandpiper along with some gulls and ducks. I did ask and apparently over at the nearby Lodmoor reserve there were a couple of black-tailed godwits as well as the possibility of the bearded tits again but by this time it was getting late and I was feeling tired. With the prospect of a three hour drive ahead of me I decided to call it a day. One of the wardens suggested going back via Salibury and Andover so I thought that I would give it a try. It took 2.75 hours so it looks to be a better route and one that I will bear in mind in future.
All in all a rather disappointing first visit to Portland Bill. I know that it's a hard time of year but I was certainly hoping for at least a couple of sheerwater species. Apparently at least 10 were seen first thing on the bill so it looks like one needs to get there very early. They do have basic overnight accommodation at the bird observatory so perhaps come down one evening, stay over night and do some first light sea watching. One thing that I decided was that my 65mm Opticron scope wasn't quite up to the job for sea watching. I'd been thinking of upgrading for a while now and have in fact come into a bit of money so I was thinking of treating myself to a top of the range job. This sea watching episode only served to reinforce the idea that I need an upgrade from my entry-level scope to something better.
On the list front, disappointingly just the one tick and that is a bit dubious: the hooded merganser has only recently been added to the BOU list and as far as I know the status of the Radipole bird has yet to be formally determined. Still I'm going to count it for now (I would very much like to get something from the trip) though it may need retracting at a later date:
186: hooded merganser (LIFER)
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About Me
I used to be a birder in my youth but rather lost interest in my teens as other things became more interesting. However recently I've rediscovered this interest and would like to share my sightings and thoughts in this blog.
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