Back in Dorset, I visited Portland Harbour again today, hoping to add to last week's tally of waterfowl. First we visited Sandsfoot Castle, where alongside the many cormorants, shags, great crested grebes and red-breasted mergansers were at least 35 black-necked grebes, an eider, the two velvet scoter I had seen on Sunday, and close in a rather splendid pair of Slavonian grebes on the remarkably calm water, taking my year list up to 179. There were also a sparrowhawk and a stunning kingfisher present. We then headed to Ferrybridge, and on the Portland Harbour side there was a very distant great northern diver as well as several common scoter, alongside many more red-breasted mergansers and a razorbill. We walked to Portland Castle, off which there was another razorbill and a common scoter. I also found another diver, an exceedingly long way off the shore, but clearly not a great northern as it displayed far too much white on its side. About twenty minutes of watching it brought the conclusion that it was a black-throated diver, my fourth new bird in five days, despite dreadful views and choppy water making identification difficult.
A quick look at Ferrybridge revealed the continued presence of the snow bunting, feeding on the muddy shore alongside several skylarks; several brent geese; 6 Mediterranean gulls and a little egret.
Another excellent morning!
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