13 Jun 22 - The Isle Of Purbeck Pelagic

Back in June 22, I was lucky to be invited by my friend Mark Singleton, who is one of the local National Trust team, to join one of the annual breeding Seabird surveys that are carried out by Footprint Ecology for the National Trust. The survey covers the Purbeck coast from Durlston to St Aldhelms and along the cliffs to Old Harry. We left Swanage on one of the small fishing boats and sailed past Durlston as far as St Aldhelms, before returning along the same coastline. The only problem with the trip, we were warned we would be out from 09:00 to early afternoon, which turned into mid-afternoon & there wasn't a toilet on the boat. Therefore, it was a case of skipping breakfast and limiting myself to a single cup of tea for breakfast.

Durlston Castle: Durlston Castle is a Victorian folly & restaurant that was built in the four years before its completion in 1891 by George Burt. Burt made his fortune running the family firm, Mowlem, who mined and shipped Purbeck stone to London. The Castle was the centrepiece of his Durlston Park. It is now owned and run by Dorset County Council as the centre for Durlston and the start of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Coastline

The Tilly Whim Quarry at Durlston: This old quarry area is now closed off as the underground quarry works are in a dangerous state

My Durlston Seawatching location: This is where the lighthouse gully reaches the sea and it provides the lowest point for seawatching at Durlston. There is a similar low point at St Aldhelms: but it is a mile & a half walk from the car park to the start of the steep track to the base of the cliffs which includes a short climb up & down one part of the path

Approaching the Durlston Lighthouse & one of the Mile Markers

Looking West from Durlston

Durlston Climbers: There is a part of the Durlston Country Park where climbing is allowed which is well away from the Seabird ledges

Durlston Climbers

Durlston Climbers

As we passed the Durlston cliffs, we started to see the first of the Seabirds. Durlston has the highest densities of Seabirds on the Purbeck coastline. The vast majority of the Auks are Guillemots, with a small percentage of Razorbills. There are some breeding Fulmars, Shags, Herring Gulls and a few pairs of Kittiwakes. The Purbeck speciality is easily the handful of pairs of Puffins in the Dancing ledge area.

Fulmars

Guillemots: There are good numbers of Guillemots on the Durlston undercliffs

Debbie & Durwyn surveying one of the Guillemot ledges: The counts are supplemented with photos of all the cliffs, so that the field counts can be confirmed from examination of photos. These photos will provide additional information for comparing results from one year to another

More Guillemots on the undercliff at Bird Cove which is West of Dancing Ledge

Guillemots

Guillemots

Guillemots

Guillemot

Bridled Guillemot: The bird of the day was this Bridled Guillemot. This is a colour morph which increases going North in the Guillemot range. They are scarce in Dorset, but commoner in the Shetland Islands. It is the first I've definitely seen in Dorset

Razorbills & Guillemots: This photo is good at showing the black Razorbills from the browner Guillemots

Razorbills & Guillemots

Blacker's Hole: This is one of the sea caves at Blacker’s Hole & it is home to the last small colony of Purbeck Kittiwakes: we saw six occupied nests

One of the Kittiwake nests

Kittiwake: This first Summer Kittiwake was hanging around the colony

Herring Gull: This Herring Gull looks like it is still incubating

Herring Gull: This Herring Gull nest has two healthy-looking chicks

Peregrine: This is one of the Durlston Peregrines

Little Egret: One or two of the Poole Harbour Little Egrets feed along the Purbeck coastline

Dancing Ledge: This is another ex-quarrying area which is now part of the National Trust coastline to the South of Langton Matravers

Dancing Ledge: As we passed Dancing Ledge, this group of school kids were preparing for a coastal activity of some sort. Good to see they were all wearing safety gear & wetsuits

The Dancing Ledge area and the Portland West Cliffs are the only known parts of the Dorset coastline where Puffins still attempt to breed. There are no more than a few pairs in the Dancing Ledge area. I don't think anybody has been able to confirm successful breeding for a number of years. However, I doubt there are many people actually looking along this part of the Dorset coastline when they would fledge. Therefore, are the pairs failing, perhaps as the nest sites could be accessible to a land predator or are they sometimes successful & Birders aren't looking for Pufflings.

Puffin: The Dancing Ledge area is the only known part of the Purbeck coastline where Puffins still attempt to breed

Puffin: It's great having this gorgeous species so close to home

Swift nest hole: There is a small Swift colony on the Purbeck coast near to Dancing Ledge. This is one of a few cliff-nesting Swift colonies in the UK. A Swift had just flown into the nest hole

Sika Deer: This was the surprise of the day. It's hard to see how this Sika Deer reached this platform

Sika Deer: It looks quite content when this photo was taken. They are a semi-aquatic species of Deer, so it is possible it could jump in the water & swim along the coast to a beach where it could get out of & back onto the downs

Finally, we reached the Winspit to St Aldhelms section. There is another reasonable sized Guillemot & Razorbill colony on this section, along with a few Fulmar nests. As we reached the St Aldhelms tide race, the sea got a bit more bouncy, but we were soon past the last of the breeding Seabirds and turning around.

The East Quarry at Winspit

The East Quarry at Winspit

Winspit

The West Quarry at Winspit

Approaching St Aldhelms: It was time to turn around and enjoy the trip back to Swanage, as the survey was over

Peveril Point: This is the last point of the Jurassic Coast, before the turning into Swanage Bay. Mark is relaxing & chatting with Durwyn & the team

Sea Kayakers: These two Sea Kayakers were enjoying the seas off Peveril Point

We weren't done yet as we crossed Swanage Bay to cover the chalk cliffs of Ballard Down as far as the breeding Gull colony on Old Harry. But I will cover that in the next Blog Post.

13 Jun 22 - #30DaysWild Day 13 - Purbeck Seabird Survey

I would like to start this Blog Post by thanking again the local National Trust team who invited me to join one of the annual seabird counts along the Purbeck coast to St Aldhelms & Old Harry run by Footprint Ecology today. The survey ran from Durlston to St Aldhelms and also the Ballard Down cliffs up to Old Harry. Fortunately, the Footprint Ecology team, Durwyn, Debbie & Sophie were doing the counting, which allowed me contribute a few additional records, take some photos & generally enjoy the trip. It was superb weather for the count & hard to picks the four photos for today's #30DaysWild. I will return and publish more Blog Posts with additional photos at a later date.

Peregrine: This Peregrine was sitting under an overhanging ledge at Durlston in a great protected position

Blacker's Hole: This is one of the sea caves at Blacker’s Hole & it is home to the last small colony of Purbeck Kittiwakes: we saw six occupied nests

Puffin: I don't need to explain why I've chosen to add one of Purbeck's most favourite species. Sadly, these days the nearest colonies are Bempton Cliffs & the Scilly Isles with one or two pairs hanging on at Portland

Old Harry: This is the first time I've seen Old Harry from this angle

9 Jun 22 - The Crossing From Rosslare To Pembroke Dock

The morning for my crossing back from Rosslare to Pembroke Dock started with heavy rain at dawn. Fortunately, the rain had stopped by the time the ferry departed from Rosslare Harbour, but it remained overcast and murky. Light rain started again as the ferry passed the Milford Haven oil terminal. Still at least it was dry enough to allow me to seawatch from the deck. I had hoped to see some Cetaceans, but no joy. There were just under 500 Manx Shearwaters (nearly all in Irish waters), 90+ Puffins and other expected Seabirds including Gannets, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Guillemots and Razorbills on the crossing to keep it interesting. As we reached Welsh waters the numbers of Guillemots and Razorbills increased, whereas Puffin numbers were similar in both the Irish & Welsh waters. A few Black Guillemots were present around Rosslare Harbour, but I didn't see any after we had left the harbour.

Rosslare Harbour Lighthouse

Black Guillemot: I normally expect to see a few around Rosslare Harbour & wasn't disappointed on this occasion

Manx Shearwater: It's always great to see flocks of Manx Shearwaters rising off the sea as we pass: most were on the Irish side of the crossing

Puffin

Stackrock Fort: The Fort was built between 1850 and 1852 to protect Pembroke Dock

10 Jul 21 - Just Drifting By

In the last Blog Post, I detailed my first attempt to see the Black-browed Albatross at Bempton Cliffs, when I missed it by about one hour, after it had flown out to sea. It was back on the cliffs for most of the mornings on the Monday and Tuesday mornings, but it disappearing off to feed at some point in the day. There were no sightings on the Wednesday & Thursday. But it was seen again on the Friday, where it spent the day on the cliffs. During the week it seemed to have found a regular spot on the cliffs, which was viewable from one of the viewing platforms.

I decided to have another attempt on the Saturday, after another hectic week of work. I was too tired to get up at 23:00 after only two hours sleep. I finally got up at 00:30 and left at 01:30. I arrived at Bempton at 07:15, to hear that it had already flown off the cliffs, but it was still showing at a distance on the sea. However, it had flown out to sea by the time I arrived at the clifftop viewing platforms. I had missed it on its cliff roost spot by just over an hour & on the sea by about forty minutes.

Still I had a good time watching the Gannets, Auks and Kittiwakes and chatting with my friend Ewan Urquhart (Black Audi Birding) & his mate Hugh. We were at the platform that could see the Black-browed Albatross roost spot. It was packed with a few Birders, as well as, birdwatchers and photographers: as it also provided good views of part of the Gannet colony. Pete Moore was standing nearby, as he had arrived earlier than me. But there was no room in the crowd to join Pete. C19 still a big concern for me & I was not into sharing cars at this point.

Fulmar

Bempton Cliffs are a superb area to visit & enjoy the spectacular Seabird colony. It should be one of those locations that everybody puts on their Bucket List to visit at least once in their lifetime. I will focus on some flight shots in this Blog Post. But there was so much more going on in front of each of the viewing platforms, that it still remained a great day out, despite missing the Black-browed Albatross.

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Puffin

Puffin

Puffin

Kittiwake

Kittiwake

Kittiwake

Later in the day, I walked off to try some of the other viewing platforms to see some of the other parts of the colony. There was a Bridled Guillemot distantly on view from one of the viewing platforms. I must have seen them before on my first visit to the Shetland Islands, but there is nothing in my notes to indicate that. It is only a colour form of Guillemot, which is uncommon in Dorset, but more common in the Shetland Islands.

Kestrel: It wasn't all about flying Seabirds during the day

Sea fog appeared & cleared a couple of times in the late afternoon, but then it drifted in and looked like it was set in for good. I left about 19:15 for the long journey home. The weather forecast for the following morning was for the fog to persist . There was thick fog there the following morning, which didn't clear for several hours. So, I made the right decision to head home. However, the Black-browed Albatross reappeared on the cliff around mid-afternoon and it spent the rest of the day on view on its preferred cliff perch.