2 Dec 22

Swannery Car Park and RSPB Radipole Lake Visitors Centre

After a shopping trip into Weymouth this afternoon, I stopped off at RSPB Radipole for a a gull watch in the car park, before a walk around the visitors centre.

The car park is a good location for mixed species which congregated here and today there were 40+ Black-headed Gull, 5 Mediterranean Gulls, 12 Herring Gull, 2 Great Black-backed Gulls and a lone Common Gull.

Around the visitors centre, the main highlight here was a Little Grebe fishing close to the footbridge before it went into the reed beds for a preening session.

Birds Recorded:
1 Little Grebe
Cormorant
2 Shelduck
Mallard
Teal
Tufted Duck
Water Rail
Moorhen
Coot
Black-headed Gull
5 Mediterranean Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
1 Common Gull
Magpie
Carrion Crow

A Little Grebe in the reedbeds.

A short video of the Little Grebe

Synchronised diving by a pair of.........

...........Shelduck. The male is on the right.

A drake Tufted Duck

The gulls in the car park.

Black-headed gulls bathing in one of the many puddles in the car park.

Adult Winter Black-headed Gulls

Black-headed Gulls and Mediterranean Gulls

As above but labelled, as to which species is which.

The gulls top middle and centre are both adult Winter Mediterranean Gulls. The remaining birds are Black-headed Gulls.

An adult Winter Mediterranean Gull...........

...........in flight.

Centre of frame is a first Winter Mediterranean Gull, with an adult Winter Black-headed Gull below.

The first Winter Mediterranean Gull.........

........in flight.

An adult Common Gull.