Sika deer

11 Sunday Oct 2026

Posted by in animals, mammal

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Well, this was a surprise!
I was at Lodmoor, standing watching two Stonechats dotting around their little patch, when this pair of Sika deer appeared from behind some bushes.

I’m not sure which of us got the biggest shock to see the other but, sadly, the stag bolted and the hind immediately followed him.

They trotted quickly across the nearest body of shallow water, paused for a moment at the half way point to turn and consider me, then retreated at a gallop further in to the reserve’s reed beds, giving me delightful views of their white, heart-shaped-furry bottoms.

Though I was sorry to have scared them, I was exceedingly pleased to have got such close views of these handsome creatures.

Entrancing Lapwings

10 Saturday Oct 2026

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

My personal challenge to take better photographs of Lapwings continued during my recent visits to RSPB Lodmoor. However, the quality and zoom length of my camera equipment is limited, so the alternative was to get as close to the birds as possible – not always, indeed not often, an easy task with these less than confiding birds.

After a couple of Lodmoor visits, I’d mostly figured out where the currently resident Lapwings preferred to position themselves. Then, it was a case of using my field craft to approach those that were closest to the footpaths at a time when no other humans were passing – not as easy as it sounds, partly because many locals use the nature reserve paths at all times of the day for jogging and to walk themselves and their dogs, often talking loudly while doing so, to each other, their dogs, and on their phones, and partly because there was a distinct lack of vegetation to hide behind in the places the birds were frequenting.

Through patience and perseverance, and visiting both in the early morning and late afternoon, I managed to get a few images that I’m happy with, but my challenge will definitely continue when next I visit. Why, you might ask? I just think that, from their ‘head crest like an upward stroke of calligraphy’ (Tessa Boase, Into the Red) to the eye-catching palette of metallic hues in their feathers, they are entrancingly beautiful.

Rust: Puccinia tanaceti

09 Friday Oct 2026

Posted by in fungi, plants, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

I was alerted to the existence of this rust by a keen amateur naturalist I follow on social media, and I tagged their post as a reminder to look for the rust at the next opportunity. Little did I know I would find it the very next day as I walked around RSPB Lodmoor.

This is the rust fungus Puccinia tanaceti, which grows on Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and some species of Artemisia, but, fortunately for me, is the only rust seen on Tansy. By sheer chance, there are quite a lot of Tansy plants growing alongside the footpaths that follow the outer boundary at Lodmoor, and I found the rust on the first few plants I looked at. Tansy is not so common in my part of south Wales but I will certainly be checking the plants I know about now that I’m back home again.

The Obs quarry birds

08 Thursday Oct 2026

Posted by in birds

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

I can never visit Portland Bill without checking the old quarry in the field adjacent to the bird observatory to see if the resident Little owl is at home. When I stopped off during a circuit of the east cliffs, the Bill, and the fields up the hill from the Obs on Thursday 24 September, the owl was nowhere to be seen but, as I stood searching with my binoculars every nook and cranny between the large blocks of stone, a Kestrel flew in. It perched on a rock at the top of the quarry, started calling and peering down at the rocks, as if it too was looking for the Little owl. In my imagination it was calling ‘Hey, little mate. Are you here? Come out and play!’ There was no response and the Kestrel flew off.

The next day, the 25th, I was back on Portland, walking a different route, but I detoured once again past the Obs quarry. And this time the Little owl was at home, sitting in its usual spot, preening. You can’t get very close to the bird – and I certainly wouldn’t want to disturb it – so my photos of it aren’t great.

However, during this visit I also took a very short video clip of it preening, which I thought you might enjoy.

Starlings at Portland Bill

07 Wednesday Oct 2026

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Even above the loud chattering of tourists and the crashing of the mighty ocean waves, you can hear the Starlings that make their home at Portland Bill**, though it did take me a few moments to realise where their musical chirps and squeaks were coming from. (My first photo is taken from the rock in the former quarry at the Bill where I was sitting while eating my lunch. The lighthouse looks short from this angle but is actually 41 metres / 134.5 feet tall.)

Look more closely at the lighthouse and you can see Starlings clinging to every available object jutting out from the building – the railings that criss-cross the light are popular, and perched along the outer ledge just beneath the level of the light. And these are just a small number of the substantial local population. Others sit on the roof of a local café, waiting to snatch any crumbs left by the customers. Still more fly in small flocks, swooping on to the grass to feed, swirling skyward in a mini murmuration at the slightest disturbance.

As I walked from the Bill towards the Obs, I passed a noisy flock of Starlings inhabiting a large area of bramble scrub near the local houses, and that’s where I took the photo below. These birds are very used to the locals passing close by and weren’t at all bothered by my presence, as I stood enjoying their jazz-time melodies and admiring the metallic hues and arrow-like markings of their plumage. They really are stunning birds.

** If you want to see the area I’m talking about, the Visit Dorset website has a great drone image, taken from slightly out to sea from the iconic red-and-white lighthouse, looking back at the island. Portland Bird Observatory – the Obs – is located in the small, former lighthouse you can see at the back of the photo, on the right side.

Late Dorset dragons

06 Tuesday Oct 2026

Posted by in autumn, insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

The dragonflies were a little disappointing during my most recent visit to Dorset but that was really only because I had been spoilt by the wonderful dragons I had seen during my mini-breaks earlier in the year; in later September the flight season for the majority of British dragonfly species is already over. There were still a lot of very active Migrant hawkers, I suspect there were a couple of Emperors in the mix, as well as a sprinkling of Common darters, and there may possibly have been Southern hawkers, as I’m still seeing those in south Wales, but, as is the way with hawker dragonflies, they weren’t stopping for photographs. It took about 30 minutes of patiently standing watching and waiting to get the photo of the Migrant hawker shown below.

My odonatan highlight came on the afternoon of the Spoonbill sighting. I’d caught the bus to Portland, walked the western coastal path, and was about to wander the footpaths through the fields north of Portland Bird Observatory, when I spotted Observatory warden Martin taking a photo of something in the field nearest the road. Curiosity aroused, I wandered over for a chat. I’m an Obs supporter and I’d stayed there a couple of times on bird club trips but I hadn’t really talked to Martin. We chewed the birding fat, then I asked what he’d been photographing. Turns out, he’d just caught a Lesser emperor in the mist nets they use to catch birds for ringing. He obviously has a way with wildlife, as the creature had allowed him to place it on a dried stalk and was still perched there, right in front of us. So, of course, I also took the opportunity to get some close-up images of this handsome migrant dragonfly.

A surprise Spoonbill

05 Monday Oct 2026

Posted by in autumn, birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Timing is everything!

On the third day of my recent Weymouth holiday my 7:45am arrival at RSPB Lodmoor was perfect. I had just started to walk along the western footpath and stopped to scan the birds with my binoculars, when I noticed a very interesting new arrival feeding right in front of the viewing shelter.

I can walk very fast when I have to and my stumpy legs really got cracking that morning. In the blink of an eye (slight exaggeration!) I had walked around to the shelter, and was watching this Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) as it swept its wide flat bill back and forth through the water, scooping up and swallowing the small creatures it was catching.

I had only ever seen Spoonbills at some distance before so I was delighted to spend time watching this bird, a juvenile according to other local birders who also managed to see it a little later in the day.

According to an article on the RSPB website, Spoonbills were once a familiar sight in Britain, until ‘drainage of wetland habitats and hunting resulted in a population crash’. They were last recorded nesting in Suffolk in 1668 and were not known to have bred again until the late 1990s, over 300 years later. Now, they breed regularly at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk, and at RSPB Fairburn Ings in Yorkshire, as well as a very small number of other locations.

Late Dorset butterflies

04 Sunday Oct 2026

Posted by in nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Only eight species of butterfly were seen in Weymouth and on the Isle of Portland last week, as it’s now late in the year for most butterfly species, and the season for many is already over.

A lovely surprise was this rather faded Wall fluttering along a path at RSPB Lodmoor, likely the same specimen seen two days running. I did spend a morning walking around the disused quarries on Portland, and was told by a chap surveying a transect at Tout Quarry that he’d seen a couple of Wall that morning but I didn’t spot any as I subsequently wandered around the quarry.

Two Small heath in the neighbouring King Barrow Quarry were an unexpected surprise. The Dorset Butterflies website says there are ‘Two broods, the first starting in May and peaking in June, going through into July, and the second emerging in August and going through to September in smaller numbers’, so I was lucky to see these so late in September.

Not surprisingly given what an amazing influx we have seen this year, there were Clouded yellows everywhere, and I couldn’t resist taking even more photographs of these golden beauties. I’m going to have to be ruthless when I go through this year’s photos deleting those I don’t want to keep.

Otherwise, I found the odd Painted lady, quite a lot of Red admirals getting ready to depart on their return migration south to Europe’s warmer wintering grounds, a few late Common blues, some Small whites, and a number of Speckled woods. And I enjoyed seeing each and every one of them, knowing they will soon all be gone for the year.

The Ferrybridge gang

03 Saturday Oct 2026

Posted by in autumn, birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

I have limited success birding the beach at Ferrybridge, at the start of the causeway that connects Weymouth to the Isle of Portland. As I don’t visit often, I’m not very familiar with the tides – I consult tide charts, of course, but I don’t know the tidal ranges, nor can I predict how quickly the birds will return to the beach on the ebbing tide. And when the tide is out, you really need a telescope to be able to accurately identify any birds along the water’s edge. Still, I persevere, and I managed to see a few bird species during one of my attempts last week, by sitting on a concrete slipway alongside the road as the tide came in. These are they …

There were a lot of Ringed plover scooting around but I only spotted a single Sanderling (the bird on the left) amongst them.

Most of the birds were strung out across the beach so I was pleased to find these four species close enough to photograph together: Knot, Ringed plover, Oystercatcher, and Dunlin.

The Knot was new for my year list so I took a few photos of it, though it was too distant for anything sharp.

Fairy inkcaps

02 Friday Oct 2026

Posted by in fungi

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

Fungi are fabulous, and none are more fabulous than profusions of fungi like these Fairy inkcaps (Coprinellus disseminatus).

Is it any wonder the Fairy inkcap is also known as the Trooping inkcap? In Fascinated by Fungi, author Pat O’Reilly takes this alternative common name and let’s his imagination run riot with it: ‘You may think that the Terracotta Army is something special, but save your superlatives until you come across your first battalion of Fairy inkcaps swarming over a rotten hardwood stump in a sunlit woodland clearing.’

The three ‘battalions’ shown here were in different woodland locations, all found on the same day, and my photos don’t show the full extent of any of their swarms – they were extensive, and delightful to see. Their caps start off a creamy colour, as in the photo above, before turning grey as they mature (photos one and three).