Saturday on Portland

Colin and I try to get down to Portland some time in spring at least once each year, though it doesn't always work out that way. Winter is good of course, with divers and grebes in the harbour, and things like Purple Sandpipers on the bill and we often went down for those, but in recent years its the spring migrants that have been a bigger draw.
An additional temptation has been the Large Tortoiseshells, of which several have been seen in recent weeks. There has been a rumour that they have been released by someone, though there have been a number seen elsewhere on the south coast, so i don't know if there is any truth in it or not.
We made our way down to Reap lane in Southwell, where the paddocks have had a Hoopoe and one or two Black Redstarts. Unfortunately the Hoopoe seemed to have departed that night and we never managed to find any Black Redstarts though we did a fairly extensive circuit of the fields and the buildings to the south. We did see at least four Wheatears, and Swallows and Sand Martins were moving north at regular intervals. Also on the move were Meadow Pipits, Pied wagtails and Linnets so it was quite interesting. We found many Chiffchaffs-a few Willow warblers had been seen elsewhere, and many Peacock and Green Veined White butterflies.
On top of the big building, we dismissed the crow on top of the building until an echoing honking made us realise it was actually a Raven.

We walked down to the top fields where earlier two Ring Ousels had been seen early morning, though they seemed to have gone, and the sea from the cliffs didn't have much on it apart from a few Fulmars and auks. We returned to the paddocks where the Wheatear were still showing well, but it seemed like the hirundine movement had dropped off significantly.
We then went to Radipole Lake to try and find the Ring Necked Duck which was supposed to be along the stretch of water by the tennis courts though we couldn't locate it. Apart from a few Cetti's Warblers, a flock of Black tailed Godwits and a few distant pings from a Bearded Tit and a brief Sedge Warbler it was rather disappointing.
It looked like Lodmoor would be the same, with only a few birds on the west scrape. However someone managed to locate the Lesser Yellowlegs tucked down on a bank until it was driven off by a Coot. However it did reappear a bit later and eventually showed fairly well. I managed to get a few photos but eventually had to leave as the Blackthorn flowers we were standing beside triggered off a really nasty bout of hay fever.