Port and Wey

17 Jan 25

Ferrybridge Sandflats and Portland Harbour

It was back to Ferrybridge this morning, to see if I could pick up some new bird species, and I wasn't disappointed as I ticked off Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Skylark and Meadow Pipit.

Other birds of interest were:

Great Northern Divers: 1 in the Fleet and 2 in the harbour

Black-necked Grebes: 8 in the harbour

Dunlin: A good 150+ on the sandflats

Mediterranean Gulls: 200+ on the sandflats

Dunnock: 1 by the visitors centre which I wasn't expecting to see at this location

Carrion Crow: 1 eating a Limpet at Ferrybridge

Greenfinch: 1 by the visitors centre.

Birds Recorded:
3 Great Northern Diver

8 Black-necked Grebe

Cormorant

41+ Dark-bellied Brent Goose

1 Buzzard

1 Kestrel

Oystercatcher

3 Ringed Plover

150+ Dunlin

10+ Turnstone

Black-headed Gull

200+ Mediterranean Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Wood Pigeon

14 Skylark

2 Meadow Pipit

2 Pied Wagtail

1 Dunnock

Magpie

Carrion Crow

Starling

House Sparrow

1 Greenfinch

A Great Northern Diver in..............

......................The Fleet at Ferrybridge

And here it has just caught a Shore Crab

Here it is again in slow-motion

A Common Buzzard on one of the lampposts along Portland Beach Road.

An Oystercatcher and three Mediterranean Gulls

Ringed Plovers

Just a few of the 150+ Dunlin here at Ferrybridge. On the water are several Mediterranean Gulls.

Turnstone

A large majority of these gulls are Mediterranean Gulls with a few Black-headed Gulls in amongst them.

Three of the 14 Skylarks in the rough grass by the car park

And another one.

Water and a Pipit. Must be a Water Pipit!!. Sadly not, its just a Meadow Pipit and my first one this year. More on pipits here.

Pied Wagtails

A Carrion Crow at Ferrybridge devouring a Limpet

And my final photo is of a Greenfinch.

16 Jan 25

Out and About

Today, Andy, my good friend and neighbour, took me for a drive around a few of Weymouth and Portland Birding Sites, to see what bird species we could add to our respective bird species list for 2025.

First stop was Lodmoor, followed by Camp Road, Ferrybridge and then Portland Harbour. Well we recorded 62 species between 9:30am - 2:00pm, with 12 new species for myself including a first for my Port & Wey Bird Species List, in the shape of an Egyptian Goose, in fact there were two at Lodmoor, bringing my year total to 80.

Other birds of interest were at least 2 Cirl Buntings in the field to the left of Camp Road. Two Avocets at Lodmoor and 10 Black-necked Grebes in Portland Harbour

Mammals Recorded:
Bunny

Birds Recorded.

New species for year in red with location seen:

2 Great Northern Diver

1 Great Crested Grebe - Ferrybridge

10 Black-necked Grebe - Portland Harbour

Cormorant

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Mute Swan

Dark-bellied Brent Goose

Canada Goose

Shelduck

2 Egyptian Goose - Lodmoor RSPB Reserve

Mallard

Gadwall

Wigeon - Lodmoor RSPB Reserve

Teal

Shoveler

Tufted Duck

Red-breasted Merganser - Portland Harbour

Buzzard - Portland Beach Road

Marsh Harrier - Lodmoor RSPB Reserve

Kestrel

Water Rail

Moorhen

Coot

Oystercatcher

2 Avocet - Lodmoor RSPB Reserve

Golden Plover

Lapwing

Snipe

1 Curlew - Ferrybridge

Black-headed Gull

Mediterranean Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Wood Pigeon

2 Kingfisher - Lodmoor RSPB Reserve

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Pied Wagtail

Dunnock

Robin

Blackbird

Song Thrush

Cetti's Warbler

Chiffchaff

Bearded Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Wren

Magpie

Rook - Camp Road

Carrion Crow

Jackdaw

Raven

Starling

House Sparrow

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Bullfinch

2 Cirl Bunting - Camp Road

Reed Bunting

Escapees, Ferals, Possibles Etc.
Feral pigeon

A Great Crested Grebe at Ferrybridge.

A Little Egret at Lodmoor.

And another Little Egret. This time at Ferrybridge.

A Grey Heron soaking up the sun at Lodmoor.

And at Lodmoor my first Egyptian Geese for my Portland and Weymouth species list, which now stands at 234 since 30 May 17.

A pair of Wigeon at Lodmoor

Two drake Teal having 40 winks.

And another drake Teal sat on the water. There was no sign of the Green-winged Teal here at Lodmoor today.

A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers in Portland Harbour.

A very distant shot of a Marsh Harrier at Lodmoor

One of the 2 Avocets at Lodmoor.

And here is the second one with its head under water.

Golden Plover at Lodmoor

More Golden Plovers with a few Lapwing.

Lapwing and a Starling at Lodmoor

More Lapwing

And even more

Right last ones.

One of many Snipe at Lodmoor.

And on one of the exposed mud flats was this Curlew and a few Mediterranean Gulls

A record shot of one of the two Kingfishers at Lodmoor today.

So close, but this Robin decided not to land on my hand.

With the sun out, there were quite a few Chiffchaffs about at Lodmoor.

A Wren at Lodmoor

A very vocal Rook at Camp Road.

A female Bullfinch at Lodmoor.

In this field to the left of Camp Road here was this.........

...............Cirl Bunting which was joined.......

.............by this second bird.

Apparently there have been up to 5 Cirl Buntings in this field.

NOTE

Reference Cirl Buntings

We were approached by the farmer, who asked us politely not to stand on the embankments as he had just planted Hawthorns to stop the soil erosion, which in turn has been undermining his fence posts. We duly obliged

15 Jan 25

RSPB Radipole Lake

Whilst Ted was at the groom room, I had a walk around Radipole; my first trip here this year. Plenty to see and quite a few firsts for the year. In fact I recorded 37 Species with 10 firsts for the year, bringing my 2025 total to 68 species.

Birds Recorded:
Cormorant

1 Little Egret