In Search of Shearwaters

On the morning of Sunday 30th July we met our group at Portland Bill for a seawatch.  We joined a small gathering of birders watching from the shelter of the lighthouse wall, it soon became obvious that there was indeed a movement of seabirds, at first we watched a trio of Arctic Skua chasing and harassing a small number of terns off the Bill.  

Then we could settle a bit to get to grips with the shearwaters, as a few of the group hadn't seen Shearwaters before we braved the wind and moved to take as much shelter at the Obelisk could afford. We were soon rewarded with a number of Balearic Shearwaters passing close by.  The best was still to come, we were scanning through a number of large gulls and picking up the odd Gannet sitting on the very rough sea when I picked up a Manx Shearwater moving toward us from along the East Cliff.  When it reached our position it landed on the sea right in front of us.

Manx Shearwater resting on the sea © Mike Davidson

We had plenty of opportunity to see many Balearic and the odd Manx Shearwaters moving past and a number formed a small feeding raft a few hundred metres off the Bill.  We added a number of other species such as Fulmar, Kittiwake, Common Scoter, Mediterranean Gull, Herring and Great Black-backed Gull, Shag, Cormorants.  We also saw three Kestrels, a Peregrine which flew in off the sea and a single Whimbrel which flew past out to sea.  A single Common Sandpiper took a short rest on the rock just in front of us.  We even had a passing Oystercatcher and a handful of Linnets plus a number of Rock Pipits.

After the seawtaching slowed we walked to the Lower Lighthouse Bird Observatory and added many of the commoner species found on the Bill, though the Little Owl in the quarry wasn't to be seen, probably due to the wind direction.

We thought that as it was so windy at the Bill it might be worth checking the north of the island so we headed for the Verne Common and the Admiralty Cemetery.  As it happened, though it was sheltered and warm here, other than a very noisy Peregrine and the usual gulls and corvids there was little to see so we headed to Ferrybridge for lunch.

We started again looking over the Fleet where Mediterranean Gull and Sandwich Terns showed well. We moved on to Lodmoor to finish our day where we added a small selection of waders including three Common Sanpipers, six Dunlin, a few Black-tailed Godwits still looking splendid in summer plumage.  Also Marsh Harrier, Sparrowhawk and a few Swift over the reserve as well as the usual duck species.