1st August Radipole & Lodmoor

[kite1035]

Today Saturday 1st August I went to Weymouth and had a look at Radipole & Lodmoor RSPB reserves, I do not normally go here by public transport as it is a bit costly but as South West Trains are having a Summer Madness during august (weekends only) £10 return any where within the South West Trains region I decided I would give it a go,It had been raining most of the way down but on arriving at Weymouth the rain had stopped so my first call was at Radipole Lake I was looking for the Hooded Merganser (the bird is in eclipse at the moment) so took a while to locate but I did find it lucking under the willows by the information centre where I was told to have a look, I then took a look around Radipole birds seen Cormorant, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Gadwall, Pochard, Swallow, Sand Martins,House Martins, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Sedge warbler, Willow Warbler, & a selection of Gulls Then after a while the rain started again just a fine drizzle so I took shelter under the bridge at the south end it did ease up so I now decided to walk the mile along the sea front to Lodmoor where on arriving I had lunch under the shelter by now the rain had stopped again I spent quite a bit of time here as waders where coming and going the first little flock of wader produce Wood Sandpiper, Dunlin, Little Stint, Redshank Common Terns where busy feeding young I then I moved on round to the west side where I had better views of the waders and found Greenshank, 3 Common Sandpipers, Little Egret (which I managed to video) along her I had Bearded Tit, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Then the rain started again so it was back to the shelter more waders where coming and going then just as I was about to leave 2 Curlew Sandpipers came in with the Dunlin, as it was starting to rain quite heavy now I decided it was time to head for the station on arriving I had just missed my train so had another 40 minutes to wait so I returned to Radipole and had another look at the Hooded Merganser so then it was back for the train so ending a very enjoyable but slightly damp day

[Meta menardi]

Some days just are good, aren't they? Nothing dramatic, maybe slightly duff weather, but it just feels right and you remember them for all your life. Sounds like you just had one, congratulations.

[nigel_b]

Thats brilliant, glad you had a good day and thanks for writing it up for us. Its reasonably local to me and I must get over there to see the bearded tits.