Date spotted: 9th Jan - High Tide - 1PM-3PM
Location: Portishead - Battery Point
Observation: We headed to Battery Point (Portishead) in hope to find the Purple Sandpipers after a few unsuccessful attempts. We arrived at midday and waited for high tide at 1:06pm. Around 12.45pm 5 Purple Sandpipers arrived to feed on the seaweed. A few minutes later 4 Turnstones arrived. Both the Turnstone and Purple Sandpipers weren't very active and seemed to just shelter from the wind and rest rather than feed. We left at around 1.30pm as not much was happening, as we left we noticed some birders to the left of us, they called us over for help on ID'ing the bird. At first we thought it was the Brunnich's Guillemot which had been at Portland previous (always thinking of the rarest bird first!). After confirmation from from Rare Bird Alert, it turnt out to be a Common Guillemot, but a first for us and the other birders there so a nice little bonus. The Guillemot was sheltering from the wind, on the bottom of the cliff, and was feet from us (so we though injured but had a text to say was later swimming back in the sea so was just an exhausted bird). Very successful day even if it wasn't a rarer bird!
Weather: Blue Sky, Sunny but very cold with wind!
Other Species: 70+ Black-Headed Gull, 3 Herring Gull, 15 Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Curlew, Turnstone, Purple Sandpiper, Common Guillemot, Pied Wagtail, Rock Pipit, Meadow Pipit
Observation: Not alot about of anything today, highlights were 50 Teal on the Top Lake, and a single Goldcrest + Nuthatch in the village of note. Otherwise not even alot of the usual suspects. No sign of the Little Owl either. Robin picture is the perches we have set up around the zones, within minutes of refilling with seed, had 2 Robins and 1 Great Tit on them! Not bad considering only been up less than a week!
Observation: A very successful first trip of the year down to Weymouth. First we visited Radipole to find the Glossy Ibis, driving along the road we spotted it so jumped out van, and took some shots, lets you get within 30 foot before flying a little further away. The Glossy was in the park to start with but kids in the park scared it so landed by goal posts. Word of warning very wet so wear wellys! We moved onto the harbour, lots of birders but distant birds so moved on quickly to Portland Bill and had a walk from Southwell to the lighthouse and back. Very windy so not alot of birds along the west side of the island. A few birds down at the lighthouse including a Raven and Pied Wagtail. Along by the huts we found a female Black Redstart sheltering from the wind so got some nice shots of her. As we walked back onto the footpath we seen a Kestrel flying towards us (weird) it started hovering right in front of us. We watched it for a little, it then went down towards the Redstart! We walked slowly round to see it, it was sat on the edge of the cliff about 5 foot from us!! We moved around a bit more, he didn't even move, think he may have seen the Redstart, but flew off unsuccessful! So a very successful day for us !
