Lodmoor and Portland

12th June 2022

On holiday in Dorset so time for a visit to Lodmoor and Portland. Lodmoor was fairly quiet as would be expected at this time of year, but enough to keep a photographer occupied. The first bird of note was a Great White Egret which was huddled up with a couple of Little Egrets and never really showed its size but enough for a record shot.

It is always interesting to visit new places as very often the birds are a lot tamer than at home. A good example was the Shelducks which on the east coast are a bit wary, but here would walk past at a range of less than 10 yards.

The resident pair of Oystercatchers originally had three young but presumably due to predation were now down to one, but still a lovely little fluff-ball. And as should be the case, the parents were very attentive.

At the Discovery Centre at Ferrybridge the tide was out so time for a bit of botanising. The soil on Portland is obviously just right for Red Valerian as it is all over the place, but I was particularly pleased to come across a rather neat patch of Pyramidal Ortchids.

On The Bill a male Kestrel was making the most of the up-draft from the cliffs and Guillemots were streaming past on their way back to their colony on the west cliffs.

But today's stars were the Rock Pipits. Here in summer all the Rock Pipits are the resident petrosus and in my experience this race is very tame wherever you find them. On the east coast Rock Pipits are only found in winter and are the migratory Scandinavian race littoralis which are far more wary and can be hard to approach.

The birds were obviously feeding young and I eventually managed to track one down, a little fluff-ball hunkered down in a crevice waiting for its next meal.

But then was the surprise of the day. It was now 6pm, the cafe had closed and everyone had gone home. As we sat at a picnic table enjoying the view a couple of crows flew down and started to scavenge under the table for dropped food. It was only then that I noticed that these "crows" were in fact larger than the nearby Herring Gull and realised that they were in fact Ravens.

Not only Ravens but also incredibly tame and I was able to photograph them at a range of just 8 yards. It must be a Dorset thing!!!