Yesterday, after being in the house for most of the week because of the dull weather, I managed to get out to the Weymouth area. I was really hoping to see the Velvet Scoter and Black-Throated Diver that had been in Portland Harbour, because both would be new birds for me. Anyway, first stop was Ferrybridge. After raining while we were driving over there, the sun had now come out and it looked like good conditions for some photography, so a good chance for me to do some more practicing.
Straight opposite where we parked the car, there was a small group of gulls and after having a quick look through I found atleast 6 Mediterraneans amongst the Black-Headeds.
I got this photo of the gull group, I think there are 3 Mediterranean Gulls there.
The high tide had forced a lot of Brent Geese up close to the visitor centre, and I was really pleased to see 5 Pale-Bellied Brent Geese, as I'd never seen one before. There were lots of other Dark-Bellied Brents as well.
Here are the Pale-Bellied Brents
And some of the Dark-Bellied Brents
And eventually the Pales came and joined the Darks, allowing a good opportunity to compare
There were loads of very tame Starlings in the car park, and although they may not be the rarest of birds they are certainly very pretty, and nice and easy to photograph!
Then we crossed the road so that we could have a look in Portland Harbour. There were a lot of Turnstones on the beach, which once again allowed me to get very close to them.
Also, 2 Skylarks were singing nicely and showing there display flights above us. Rubbish photo but shows what it is.
Scanning through the Harbour, there were a few Great Northern Divers, and a flock of Mergansers. We decided to go to another place by the Harbour that would allow us to get closer to the Mergansers, because the Velvet Scoter had been staying with them.
From the next point, the Mergansers were closer but there was no Velvet Scoter amongst them. There was one female Common Scoter sleeping by a buoy very far out, and also a couple of Slavonian Grebes and more Divers (but no Black-Throated).
Here are some very heavily cropped images I got of some of the birds.
The Slavonian Grebes -
And these photos are of the Mergansers when they drifted a bit closer and some of the males started showing there very funny display.
As we were about to leave there was a large dark bird on it's own that was a strange shape, possibly the Velvet Scoter, but it was much too distant.
Next we went to Radipole Lake. Once again, the birds were allowing very close approach and good photo opportunities.
Here is a Lesser Black-Backed Gull that was by the visitor centre
Because of the very heavy rain the reserve had been flooded quite badly, so the hide was closed and there were lots of large puddles across the paths, but we still walked around some of the reserve.
Because of the flooding these Swans were right next to the path
Walking on a bit further I heard some really nice birdsong coming from the reeds, and thought it may well be Cetti's Warbler. I could see something hopping low in the bushes and after a while it hopped out into the open and showed itself to be a Cetti's Warbler. It flew across the path and was followed by a second one.
Here is the only photo I managed, you will just have to take my word that it is a Cetti's Warbler!
Carrying on round the path a Woodpigeon came and landed on a tree very closeby
Out on the more open water there were lots of Tufted Ducks and Ruddy Ducks, as well as a few Pochard. These allowed good photo opportunities.
A nice male Pochard
Some Ruddy Ducks, the males looked great in the sun today, the blue beaks really stood out!
And a nice pair of Tufted Ducks
And finally a Coot very close to the path
I was really pleased with the day and got some photos that I'm happy with. Annoyingly when I got home I found out that I'd been shooting on ISO 1600 all day, so my shots were a bit grainy. It was a bit of a shame not to see the velvet Scoter but I saw loads of other great birds and it was very nice having some birds that aren't camera shy for once!
Guy
P.S I doubt that I've inserted the images right as I can never seem to do it properly so there will probably be loads of little red crosses, sorry!
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