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WEYMOUTH HARBOUR & SEA FRONT WALK

I was woken up by a Partrdige this morning! Looking out of my bedroom window I could see a Red-legged Partridge  sitting on our fence, he was calling every few minutes and seemed to be happy that I was now awake! I also noticed that the bird-feeders were busy with Blue, Great & Coal Tits, also Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Chaffinch and the local Wren was skulking in the bushes.

my alarm clock this morning was a Red-legged Partridge, taken through my bedroom window using my phone

Dawn and I decided to go for a walk today, we both have had bad coughs which has kept us home for almost a week so we needed some fresh air. We arrived around 10:30, it was cloudy with a light breeze, the sun came out for brief periods all morning.

We drove to the Harbour and parked on the west side. We were going to walk to the harbour mouth on the west side of town and along the path below the Nothe Fort. It became brighter and sunny spells broke through the clouds.

a view of the harbour looking towards Weymouth Bay and the Harbour mouth

just a minute.......what is that little bird in the water next to this boat?

OMG!  it is a LITTLE AUK.................I knew one was in the harbour somewhere but not right below where we parked the car!!

Soon a group of 20-30 birders had gathered around us, many with large telephoto lens, the bird was too close and those lens were not needed.

Little Auk

what a little gem! This species breeds up in the Arctic Circle and winters in the North Atlantic. It is a winter visitor to the UK in very small numbers and is rarely seen in harbours. Bad sea condtions can produce large numbers passing offshore in Autumn,  especially on the east coast. 

Now I have to come clean..................... we did not stumble upon this bird, in fact we walked past the spot where it was found!! Doh!!  We knew the bird was present and had gone to the harbour to look for it. We walked a good way before along the harbour before we noticed a crowd of birders gathering behind us, near to where we parked our car. So we dashed back to see the bird. It was very close to the harbour wall, what a fantastic little bird.

We left the harbour around 12 noon and spent the rest of our time walking along the sea front and the shopping areas, then eating lunch, and we arrived home at 4pm.