A DASH AROUND DORSET TO TRY TO SEE 100 SPECIES
WEATHER: OVERCAST WITH SUNNY SPELLS, MDOERATE WIND. TOP TEMP 5C
For the last few years Guy and I have set out on New Year's Day to see as many species as possible, we always hope to see 100 species, see below how we got on this year!!
As usual it was a Robin that became my first bird sighting of 2026, I bent down to tie my boot laces and my 'garden Robin' flew in thinking I was about to throw some food down. It was 6:40am, very chilly and really quite dark. Guy turned up 5 minutes later and we set off for Portland.
It wasn't until we reached Weymouth that it became light enough to make out our next few species, we saw Carrion Crow, Herring Gull and Mute Swan as we passed Radipole Lake and Weymouth Harbour. At Portland we drove straight to the Bill car park, we had just enough light to see a few more species.
the eastern sky as we approached Portland
Rock Pipit, Jackdaw and Cormorants were seen as we walked down to Obilisk at the cliff edge. It was quite windy at the Bill, we hid behind the obilisk for shelter and set up our scopes. Immediately we started listing sea birds and found everything we hoped to see. Hundreds of Guillemots were flying past along with Kittiwake, Common Gull, Shag, Razorbill (only two were seen and Guy missed them both).
Guru Guy then found a Red-throated Diver, the first of two seen, and he found two Common Scoter. Further scanning produced Northern Gannet, Fulmar, Great Black-backed Gull, three more Common Scoter and a second Red-throated Diver. A short walk produced a single Purple Sandpiper and several more Rock Pipits. Ravens came into view on several occasions and I think that wrapped up our Portland Bill visit.
We drove back up the road and stopped to scan the Observatory Quarry for Little Owls but none were present, a quick stop at the Observatory to use their facilities, added Goldfinches and Wood Pigeons, both were seen near the gardens and a Stonechat sat on the fence.
The small woodlands next to 'Pennsylvania' Castle was quite productive, we found Great Tit, Robin, Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Blackbird, but we missed common species such as Blue Tit, which was going to haunt us throughout the day!
A quick stop at Chesil Cove was made to look for Black Redstarts, Guy had seen two of them recently but we saw none today, we added Pied Wagtail and Wren. At Portland Castle we had views over the southern end of Portland harbour. We scanned with our scopes and it took us a while before we found a single bird. Eventually we found 3 Great Northern Divers, a single Red-breasted Merganser, a couple of Great Crested Grebes, our first Grey Heron and the usual gulls, Cormorants and Shags.
can you make out two Great Northern Divers here?
Outside Costa Coffee we scanned the south-east corner of the harbour. Two More Great Northern Divers were found and we added Mediterranean Gull, Brent Goose and Meadow Pipit to the list.
Ferrybridge was visited next and with a low tide we had a huge area of mudflats to scan. We quickly found Dunlin, Common Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Turnstone, lots more Brent Geese, Little Egret and the usual gulls (mainly Mediterranean Gulls). Around the car park we added Greenfinch, Skylark, Rock Pipit and in the pools south of the visitor's centre we located the long staying Goosander (my bird of the day so far).
Goosander seen at Ferrybridge
We then drove to Camp Road at the East Fleet, we were hoping to scan the Fleet to find Long-tailed Duck and Slavonian Grebes both of which were seen earlier today. Unfortunately it was going to take a long walk to the far end of the Bridging Camp to see them and we didn't think it was worth our precious time. We also looked for Cirl Bunting and Black Redstart and dipped on both. We did add Dunnock and Guy had his first Robin!
By now it was 11am we had seen 65 species, we must work harder for the last 35 species. At Sandsfoot Castle and from the quay at Weymouth Sailing club we spent too much time looking for Black-necked Grebes! From the quay Guy found us a Peregrine Falcon. We found at least 4 more Great Northern Divers, lots of Great Crested Grebes but nothing new. In the hedgerow adjacent to where we had parked the car we found a Firecrest and a female Blackcap (Guy got little or, not good enough views of the Firecrest!! Doh!).
From Radipole Lake car park we added Tufted Duck and Little Grebe (Guy missed the grebe), from the Bridge by the cafe, we added Moorhen, Teal, Gadwall, Mallard and we saw lots of gulls. From the Tennis Court car park we added Shoveler, we also spent a little time eating our lunch.
Lodmoor was approached from the northern end, along the track onto the reserve we both saw a Cetti's Warbler and along the west track we found Common Chiffchaff, Long-tailed Tit but still no Blue Tit!
Common Snipe at Lodmoor
The marshes held a lot of birds but not a great variety, we had to work hard to find our target species. An Avocet was nice to see, Common Snipe, Lapwing, Wigeon were easy but we had to search for Common Shelduck, a single Golden Plover and we didn't find a Curlew or Black-tailed Godwit.
Luckily for Guy, a friend took us back along the track and showed us where he had just seen a Firecrest!! We found two Chiffchaffs and two Goldcrests before a beautiful Firecrest showed at eye-level, (Guy immediately made that his bird of the day). We then split up, Guy went back to collect the car and I walked to the beach road. When we met again I had added Golden Plover (Guy saw 10 of them), he also saw Common Buzzard and Marsh Harrier, I had heard a Water Rail.
With time running out we headed to Dorchester to look for Tundra Bean Geese. We tried two sites, it was the latter site, Charminster Meadows, that produced the birds. Guy also found our first Fieldfare of the year. We also added Lesser Black-backed Gull, Canada Goose and Greylag Goose. With the list standing at 82 we set off for Silverlake hoping to tick-off Egyptian Goose and Dartford Warbler. Guy found a female Darty but we dipped on the goose, we also added Common Pochard and Common Coot, we still hadn't seen a Blue Tit.
Tundra Bean Goose - this is the same bird that I saw and photgraphed a few days ago
The last two places we visited were the Watercress Beds at Crossways and the pinewoods at Culpepper's Dish. Neither of these places gave us any new species! We did see lots of Meadow Pipits, Pied Wagtails at the 'beds' and just Goldcrests in the pines at Culpepper's Dish.
Sunset taken from the car park at Culpepper's Dish, Affpuddle.
We were 15 species short of our target of 100, boo, hoo! It had been a great day out in Dorset, we had a fabulous time trying find as many species as we could, niether of us were disappointed with the outcome, that's birding for you. We hadn't seen a Blue Tit all day!!
Just as we did this morning we drove in the dark to return home.