16 Oct 17

Broadcroft Quarry and Bumpers Lane Quarry

With the opportunity to see a Red-breasted Flycatcher, which arrived yesterday along Broadcroft Quarry Road, the alarm clock was set for 6:30am this morning in the hope of seeing this rare Flycatcher from Eastern Europe.

I left the house at 7:10am and arrived at the spot around 7:20am. After about 5 minutes it began to call and I managed at least 3 glimpses of it in the Sycamores. It wasn't the best of sightings as the light wasn't brilliant.

It called several times again and then as the quarry trucks began to pass by and the wind from ex-hurricane Ophelia got up, it wasn't seen or heard after 8:00am.

Other highlights this morning were 5 Siskins over, my first Lesser Redpoll here on Portland and another first here, a Barn Owl in Bumpers Lane Quarry which caught me out and sadly eluded my camera.

Note: Having not seen or heard it from 8:00am onwards it was good to hear that it was seen again just before 10:00am by Joe Stockwell. More below:


Sunrise

The patch of trees where the Red-breasted Flycatcher stayed the night until 8:00am this morning.

Bumpers Lane Quarry the location of my first Barn Owl on the island.

Birds recorded: 1 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, Wood Pigeon, 1 Barn Owl, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, 5 Song Thrush, 1 Blackcap, 8 Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Raven, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 80+ Linnet, 5 Siskin and Goldfinch.

LATER

I went back to Broadcroft Quarry at 10:30am and bumped into both Dave Butcher and Dave Dunn, friends of mine, down here from Swindon to see the Red-breasted Flycatcher. They weren't the only ones as car after car turned up to see this very elusive bird. I'm not sure how others got on, but I managed 2 better views of it than I did earlier this morning.

 Easton

 As I was waiting for Dawn to come out of Boots the Chemist at around 11:06am, I came across a Firecrest in amongst the Goldcrests in Easton Gardens.

 The Bill

 This afternoon I visited the Obs just on the off chance there might have been something blown in on the gales. Sadly not, though I did have a Firecrest as I was watching the Linnets in the Crown Estate Fields. Other highlights was a Sparrowhawk dive bombing the Linnets without much luck and watching two Gannets really struggling above the waves out to sea.

 Here are a few images from this afternoon:
A Buzzard looks on over the Crown Estate Fields.......

.....and then decides to move off......

......to the next set of posts.

Spot the odd one out.

A bit bigger than the Linnets.

Yep if you spotted it, it was this Kestrel.

I watched dive down a couple of times, presumably for voles and field mice. It was also catching grasshoppers and dropped one it caught right in front of me.
It wasn't just Kestrels and Buzzards here but also a Sparrowhawk. In the distance the Buzzard from earlier sat on a post.
This cock Pheasant was desperate to get across the road. It was a scraggy bird with loads of tail feathers missing, which was probably why it chose to walk across the main road and not fly.
The seas to the east were as choppy as anything with ex-hurricane Ophelia stirring things up.

Birds recorded here: 2 Gannet, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Buzzard, Kestrel, 1 Pheasant, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, 1 Swallow, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, 2 Chiffchaff, 5 Goldcrest, 1 Firecrest, Wren, Carrion Crow, House Sparrow, 1000+ Linnet and Goldfinch.

Chesil Cove

A quick trip to Chesil Cove in the aftermath of ex-hurricane Ophelia.  This is High Tide with spray flying over the beach into Chiswell high street.

A few images from this evening: