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…
RSPB Arne and Studland Bay 26th August 2016 One of the highlights of the rserve is not the cafe and shop which sits slightly uphill of the visitor centre. This used to belong to afarmer but they persuased him to move to a building a few hundred metres away so they could convert the farmhouse…
Brownsea Island 25th August 2016 Our boat trip to Brownsea Island was fairly uneventful though there were a few Sandwich Terns flying around the bay. On the island we mainly concentrated on the Dorset Wildlife Trust part of the island which includes the lagoon. Away from that we did see some woodland birds and a…
Keyhaven 24th August 2016 Although this post says Keyhaven, in fact the location was really Hurst Castle at the end of the pebble spit that starts in Keyhaven at the junction of Saltgrass Lane and New Lane. Previously we had walked along Saltgrass Lane and got did good birding there before walking up the spit….
Beaulieu Road Station and Denny Wood 24th August 2016 On the morning of the 24th of August, we were decided on looking for Dartford Warblers on the walk from Beaulieu Road Station to Denny Woods and back. Unfortunately we seemed to miss the station and drove past the Shatterford Bottom car park that we needed…
Fritham and Eyeworth Pond 23rd August 2016 We had a fairly long drive this day as we were taking the scenic route from Montacute to Lyndhurst where we were spending the night at The Crown Hotel. We drove the route via Shatesbury, Cranborne Chase, Sixpenny Handley and Fordinbridge which was lovely but we missed the…
Shapwick Heath and Ham Wall 22nd August 2016 This day was reserved for general sightseeing with our friends but we did manage to get a little bit of birding in as we took them to Shapwick Heath for a look at the Osprey. It had moved a bit to another tree but we still got…
Shapwick Heath and Ham Wall 21st August 2016 We left WWT Slimbridge in the early afternoon and then we drove down towards Montacute but first stopping off at Shapwich Heath and Ham Wall nature reserves. I had seen on the bird alert sites that Glossy Ibis and Osprey had been around and we tried our…
WWT Slimbridge 21st August 2016 Before we headed off to Montacute, we took advantage of an early doors visit to WWT Slimbridge again. The bird list was pretty much the same but we did get another “year tick” in the shape of Curlew Sandpiper. I have to admit that I was not 100% convinced but…
WWT Slimbridge 20th August 2016 We started our 10-day holiday driving from Manchester to Slimbridge which we usually use as a convenient break stop on our way to Montacute in Somerset. We stayed at The Tudor Arms near to the WWT Slimbridge reverve which is our favoured hostelry in the area. It is also just…
