Portland Bill 27th August 2016

Portland Bill 27th August 2016

On the morning of the 27th we were due to return to Montacute where we were staying in our friends’ house for a few again, this time while they were away in Lanzarote, so we made sure that we fitted in some birding en route. Our first stop was Portland Bill which, in my mind, I had hopelessly confused with Spurn Head !! Here we managed to get a really satisfying year tick as well as a small number of typical species for the habitat.

We started out a the main car park and walked uphill to the path that runs along the soth west coastal path to Lower Admiraly. A Raven flew low overhead and perched, kronking, on a MOD building next to us. We saw several Wheatear and Rock Pipits as well. We turned back downhill and thought we might head for the observatory at the foot of the Old Lower Lighthouse  and a nicely sized flock of Linnets perched on a wire fence. Hopwever it wasn’t long before the rain started to fall. We saw some parking spots on a side road and so Anne decided to go back for the car and we would meet either on the path to the observatory or at the observatory.

While Anne was away, I crossed some small fields, marked below in red. The rain was teeming down now but I thought it might stop so I was intending just going on to the observatory. I passed a small “quarry” – an outcrop of rock in some fields really – marked with the right cross below and I thought to have a look. I had seen a Kestrel flying around there and wanted to see it in the scope as it rested on the rocks. As I scanned them with my binoculars, I thought I saw a bird hiding in a little ledge. Fixing my scope on it I discovered that it was, in fact, a Little Owl, my first of the year ! I had read that they bred here but I wasn’t really expecting to find one so quickly – or at all.

Expecting that Anne was close behind me I waited and waited because I knew she would not want to miss the Owl. Unfortunately for me she decided to take a long time getting the car back and when she did she just sat in it. I had to walk most of the way back, drenched by now, in order to lure her out of the comfort of the car. Eventually she emerged and having shown her both the Little Owl and the Kestrel, I decided it was too wet to go to the observatory so we headed back to the car again and dried out a little before driving off in the rain.

Bird Sightings : Portland Bill