You may recall last year I really wanted to see a Puffin. Despite several attempts, due in the main to bad weather & not lack of trying, I failed. This year is going to be different, fingers crossed. You only get a few months in the year where the Puffins come into land to breed. Starting April / May & finishing July. In the main they are on uninhabited Islands around the UK, hence the failure last year as the weather was too bad to get out to the Treshnish Isles off the coast of West Scotland, the Farnes and Coquet Island in Northumberland. So its the mainland for us.
Some Puffins have been seen in Dorset around Portland Bill so imagine my delight when our local RSPB group (for local people, in every sense of the league of gentlemen!!) announced a trip there. Puffins here we come.
Up at 5.45 Saturday morning. Mr F somewhat jaded from a 3 day conference in Barcelona, managed to prise himself from the bed. I was not a lot better and wished I could lie in. However we stuffed the car full of cameras, scopes, tripods, binoculars, wet weather gear & enough food to get us through the day. A short drive to pick up the coach in Maidenhead & we were on the road just after 7.
Arrived Portland around 10ish. Beautiful blue sky and sunshine but quite a stiff wind blowing (more about that later). I have never been to Portland Bill before it is a very beautiful place; well it’s the seaside so it would be nice. We saw Guillemots, Razor Bills, Kittiwakes, Shags, some Gulls (we don’t do Gulls) and a Purple Sandpiper but no Puffins. Walking along the cliff top I had a bit of a disaster when the wind took my brand new scope & blew it over the edge of the cliff. I watched in horror as it slid down the grassy slope heading for the rocky cliff edge. Mr F was still a bit behind the rest of group as he was taking photos of Wheatears, so did not witness the event. Thankfully it stopped short of the cliff edge & one of the group climbed own & retrieved it. I was so lucky that it did not fall on rocks or end up in the sea. It was only slightly muddy and no damage done. I did not stop feeling shaky for quite a while even after I had admitted to Ian what had happened. Everyone said that they had all done it and it was par for the course. It did not do a lot for my confidence though. Mr F was less than amused to say the least, until I reminded him about the Nikon incident at Cork Airport!!! 1 all I think.
We then walked up by some beach huts and as soon as we were out of the wind it became very hot. Lots of birds were singing in the brambles & atop bushes making excellent viewing in scopes and subjects for photographing. There were Linnet (lots), Stonechat, Whinchat, Wheatear, Sedge Warbler, Greenfinch and Goldfinch to name a few. The clear sound of their song was just lovely, the warm smell of the wildflowers and grass, in the sun and a hint of salty sea air, just perfect. We had to walk past a pub to get back to the coach – that is the trouble with Birders they are more interested in the next tick rather than the next pint! The lure of ale was strong for Ian & I but time was precious so we skulked past the pub. It was worth it though as we saw a Little Owl tucked up inside a gap in a quarry face, quite close up.
We went onto RSPB Radipole Lake in the centre of Weymouth. The weather continued to be kind to us. We got an excellent view of a hobby sitting for quite a while in a tree, saw the mating dance of the Great Crested Grebe and narrowly missed out on a Bearded Tit seen by a couple of members of the group.
However we did manage to get a fantastic sighting of a Cetti’s Warbler. It usually appears on the day list as heard only. They do have the most amazingly loud song; it's
almost as if they are shouting at you. All in allwe had a really great day out despite the lack of Puffins. The beautiful weather helped to make the day extra special after all the rain we have had recently, and the glowing faces on the coach on the way home proved a great source of amusement for many. I have not given up and the quest for a Puffin continues next week. Stay tuned!
There are plenty of Photo's to post when Mr F get time to choose which ones are the best. I have just read this back & am sure that most of you will be less than interested in the nerdy birdy stuff.
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