I spent another day on Portland and it turned out to be a fairly productive day with a variety of migrants seen across the island. I linked up with Garry and Roly for parts of the day.
The bird of the day was a Turtle Dove which I heard calling in a clump of trees near the large barn. Hearing the bird was the easy part as locating it proved to be tricky in the dense branches. Once I had located the dove I took some pictures and put the tweet and call out to Peter Coe who notified local birders.
After around forty five minutes the bird left the cover of the trees and began feeding at the back of the field adjacent to the barn. This presented the group with better photo opportunities until the bird flew out of view.
A Male Black Red start had been in the same area just prior to the find. This proved additional interest factor to the visitors to the area.
Earlier on in the day the early shift of Garry and I had covered the same area with good numbers of Whinchat and Wheatear. We were both exploring Barleycrates in different areas Garry shouted to avert my gaze to the sky where a Short Eared Owl was being harassed by a gull. The bird was too far away to get shots at the time but it transpired several watchers had seen the owl including Debbie and Pete Saunders. Little did I know at the time I would see the bird again whilst talking with Erin near Coastguard Cottages.
Prior to my return to Portland I called in at Radipole RSPB as the Ruddy Shelduck had been present for the last couple of days. The visit was a brief one as the bird was viewable from the Visitor Centre car park.
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