Dorset Walks

Walks on Portland - wildlife highlights for 2014

last year's walks . . .

Friday December 26th East Weares A very quiet and pleasant walk along the top of the Eastcliffs at the Grove, with very few birds apart from a pair of great tits (not the ones pictured right which were photographed several years ago!). The highlight was the group of fulmars wheeling around just off Grove Point, and the raven croaking nearby. No sign of the goats again though. The day's list: fulmar, kestrel, cormorant, great tit, raven, magpie
Friday December 19th Southwell Walking along the Eastcliffs at Southwell we were glad of the shelter from the cold south-westerly wind. In fact it felt quite warm, but not warm enough to tempt the wall lizards out. We were surprised to see the male peregrine sat out on the exposed wall at the edge of the grounds of Cheyne House. Later we saw the female as well, eating a scrap of what we presumed to be pigeon. Further on a kestrel was seen closely, as well as a raven and a brief glimpse of a black redstart. The day's list: peregrine, kestrel, cormorant, guillemot, gannet, raven, pied wagtail, wren, black redstart
Friday August 22nd Kingbarrow Quarry Setting out in a cold (for August!) northerly wind we were grateful for the shelter as we dropped down into the quarry. We had been talking about stock doves so were pleased to see a pair fly over the quarry. Very few other birds were seen but we did get a brief view of the resident little owl. Returning to the hotel we tried to estimate the numbers of autumn ladies tresses orchids on the front lawn. Estimates varied widely but the true number must be in the high thousands. The day's list: birds - carrion crow, jackdaw, stock dove, goldfinch, whitethroat, swallow butterflies - speckled wood, small heath, meadow brown, gatekeeper, red admiral, small tortoiseshell, common blue, holly blue other insects - hummingbird hawk-moth, migrant hawker plants - autumn ladies tresses, wild privet, marjoram, red bartsia
Friday August 1st Southwell A quick visit to the Eastcliffs to check on the newly-fledged peregrine chicks produced just a very tired-looking adult female sat on the cliff. A rock pipit family was far more obliging feeding on the cliff and path. The fields above the path were full of linnets and sparrows and the cliff edge producing our first two autumn migrants - a willow warbler and a whitethroat. Lower down the cliff the Portland rock sea-lavender was in full flower. The day's list: birds - kestrel, peregrine, buzzard, raven, swallow, linnet, house sparrow, willow warbler, whitethroat. butterflies - meadow brown, gatekeeper, common blue plants - Portland rock sea-lavender, melilot, rock samphire
Friday July 25th Blacknor Another peregrine survey and another negative result as far as breeding goes - although we did see both adults on the cliff. The kestrels have clearly fared better with two very healthy looking young gliding around the cliff-top. The day's list: birds - kestrel, peregrine, whitethroat butterflies - speckled wood, wall, meadow brown, gatekeeper, red admiral, chalkhill blue plants - greater knapweed (right), small scabious, wild cabbage
Friday July 18th Verne Naval Cemetry Today's visit was specifically to check up on how the peregrines were doing and to try to find out if they had any young this year. As we didn't manage to see any at all I have to assume that this pair hasn't managed to breed. We did find a young kestrel with a parent though and had good views of a sparrowhawk on the cliff. Also lots of butterflies and other insects such as this common carpet moth. The day's list: birds - kestrel, sparrowhawk, jackdaw, stock dove, bullfinch, dunnock, wren butterflies - speckled wood, ringlet, meadow brown, gatekeeper, red admiral
Sunday June 8th Inmosthay & Tout Quarries Absolutely beautiful weather to day for a walk around the quarries at the best time of year. The colours were amazing, as you can see from the photo. The day's list: birds - kestrel, stock dove, robin, great tit, whitethroat, wren butterflies - green-veined white, dingy skipper, large skipper, wall brown, speckled wood, meadow brown, small tortoiseshell, common blue moths - hummingbird hawk-moth, speckled yellow, yellow shell, silver y, cinnabar, six-spot burnet, burnet companion, oak eggar, garden tiger others - common lizard, azure damselfly plants - wood spurge, portland spurge, viper's bugloss, horseshoe vetch, birdsfoot trefoil, common figwort	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
common lizard	silver Y	common blue

Friday May 30th Portland Bill After nine years of regular visits to the Bill to see a puffin today we finally managed to find one! It was with at least 300 other auks, mostly guillemots, but fortunately decided to float past closer than most of them. We also saw plenty of kittiwakes and gannets out to sea, with a few fulmars and rock pipits as well. The video on the right was taken a week or two ago and shows the guillemots on the Westcliffs. The day's list: Gannet, puffin, guillemot, razorbill, fulmar, kittiwake, raven, oystercatcher, rock pipit, buzzard

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio

Thursday May 22nd Kingbarrow - Tout Quarry A wet walk around Kingbarrow in the morning produced very little in the way of wildlife so I've listed the geology instead! The weather in the afternoon was much better and really woke up the insects, in particular painted ladys, walls and dingy skippers. The day's list: geology (recent to oldest) - Purbeck slat, Purbeck lower beds, stromatolitic deposits, root/branch holes, dirt beds, Portland roach stone, Portland screw Aptyxiella portlandica, Portland devil Myophorella incurva, ammonite, whitbed, basebed, cherty bed birds - buzzard, kestrel, sparrowhawk, cormorant, jackdaw, great tit, swallow, house martin butterflies - large white, dingy skipper, wall, red admiral, painted lady, common blue other insects - silver y moth, six-spot burnet, bloody-nosed beetle, field grasshopper plants - wood spurge, marjoram, wild thyme, salad burnet, burnet rose, wayfaring tree, viper's bugloss, horseshoe vetch, birdsfoot trefoil

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
wall brown on wood spurge	common blue	dingy skipper

Friday April 18th Topfields We decided to catch up on a few migrants by searching the Topfields for some of the birds that had been seen there recently. As you can see from the list below we were pretty successful - with some good butterflies being seen as well. The day's list: birds - peregrine, kestrel, linnet, goldfinch, greenfinch, grasshopper warbler (heard), whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, willow warbler, chiffchaff, blackcap, redstart, wheatear, swallow, house martin butterflies - small white, orange-tip, wall, peacock, small tortoiseshell	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
Friday April 11th Weston A beautiful day for a walk round the windmill fields. We never found the hoopoe we were hoping for but we did see probably the smartest wheatear in the world and heard a few short bursts of song from a grasshopper warbler. In the skies above us buzzards were circling and a couple of swallows zipped past. My favourite though was this immaculate starling. The day's list: birds - peregrine, buzzard, linnet, goldfinch, magpie, grasshopper warbler (heard), wheatear, swallow	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
Friday February 21st Yeolands Quarry - Shepherds Dinner A quick look for toads at the eastern side of Silklake revealed nothing so we continued down into Yeolands to escape the wind. Walking back along Shepherds Dinner we noticed this old gatepost, once the entrance to a long-lost field system. Also noted were the signs of a seemingly unrecorded railway, judging by the stone sleepers set into the ground and the old rails supplementing the original fence. The day's list: birds - skylark, kestrel, buzzard, meadow pipit, great tit, blackbird, goldfinch, magpie	© Jos Mannering
Friday February 7th Chesil Beach After the Great Storm of Feb 5th we decided to check out the condition of the beach first-hand. We found it to be covered with depressions of all sizes, presumably caused by sea-water under-mining the pebbles and causing local collapses. Some of these extended as far as the eastern edge of the beach where they opened out into small versions of the familiar "canns" that have always been found along the beach. The day's list: birds - razorbill, little egret, sandwich tern, oystercatcher, red-breasted merganser, kestrel, raven, rook, Mediterranean gull, stonechat, rock pipit, skylark, dark-bellied brent goose washed-up - dead-man's fingers, pink sea-fan, long-spined sea scorpion	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
Friday January 10th Castletown A search for the mythical long-tailed duck was, once again, fruitless but we did see plenty of birds including the best view yet of the black guillemot and a fly-by kingfisher! The day's list: Black guillemot, razorbill, great northern diver, kittiwake, kingfisher, oystercatcher, red-breasted merganser, sparrowhawk	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
Friday January 3rd Portland Bill A pleasing start to the year with our named objectives achieved. These were to a) find a great skua and b) enjoy a coffee in the Lobster Pot cafe. In fact we managed to achieve both objectives simultaneously with the first skua arriving just as the waitress brought the coffees and a second being spotted as we were half way through them! The day's list: Great skua, guillemot, razorbill, red-throated(?) diver, gannet, fulmar, kittiwake, common gull, purple sandpiper, rock pipit, cormorant, shag	© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio

Full list of species seen since 2005

Birds (137 species) Great Northern Diver Black-throated Diver Red-throated Diver Little Grebe Great-crested Grebe Slavonian Grebe Storm Petrel Leach's Petrel Fulmar Manx Shearwater Balearic Shearwater Sooty Shearwater Gannet Shag Cormorant Glossy Ibis Little Egret Dark-bellied Brent Goose Pale-bellied Brent Goose Black Brant Red-breasted Goose Mute Swan Mallard Teal Shoveler Wigeon Pintail Velvet Scoter Goldeneye Eider Red-breasted Merganser Goosander Long-tailed Duck Red Kite Marsh Harrier Buzzard Merlin Kestrel Peregrine Sparrowhawk Wood Pigeon Stock Dove Collared Dove Great Skua Great Black-backed Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Yellow-legged Gull Herring Gull Mediterranean Gull Black-headed Gull Common Gull Little Gull Kittiwake Curlew Oystercatcher Woodcock Snipe Jacksnipe Bar-tailed Godwit LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER Redshank Lapwing Golden Plover Grey Plover Ringed Plover Purple Sandpiper Dunlin Knot Turnstone Pheasant BRÜNNICH'S GUILLEMOT BLACK GUILLEMOT Guillemot Razorbill Puffin Little Owl Short-eared Owl HOOPOE WRYNECK Skylark Swift Swallow House Martin Sand Martin WOODCHAT SHRIKE RED-BACKED SHRIKE Meadow Pipit Tree Pipit Rock Pipit Pied Wagtail White Wagtail Grey Wagtail Yellow Wagtail Wren Dunnock Grasshopper Warbler (heard) Sedge Warbler Reed Warbler Garden Warbler Blackcap Whitehroat Lesser Whitethroat Chiffchaff Willow Warbler YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER Goldcrest Firecrest Spotted Flycatcher Long-tailed Tit Blue Tit Great Tit Stonechat Whinchat Robin Wheatear Redstart Black Redstart White-spotted Bluethroat Blackbird Fieldfare Redwing Song Thrush Starling Rook Jackdaw Carrion Crow Raven Magpie Jay House Sparrow Linnet Siskin Redpoll Goldfinch Chaffinch Bullfinch Greenfinch Crossbill Yellowhammer Mammals (10 species) British Primitive Goat Common Shrew Grey Squirrel Brown Rat Oryctolagus cuniculus Brown Hare Red Fox Roe Deer (prints) Grey Seal Bottle-nosed Dolphin Reptiles (4 species) Common Lizard Wall Lizard Slow-worm Adder Amphibians (2 species) Common Frog Common Toad Fossils (6 species) Belemnite Lopha gregarea Nucleolites clunicularis (sea urchin) Titanites giganteus (ammonite) Trigonia gibbosa (oss's head)

Butterflies (28 species) Adonis Blue Chalkhill Blue Clouded Yellow Comma Common Blue Dingy Skipper Gatekeeper Grayling Green-veined White Holly Blue Large White Large Skipper Lulworth Skipper Marbled White Meadow Brown Painted Lady Peacock Red Admiral Ringlet Silver-studded Blue Small Blue Small Copper Small Heath Small Skipper Small Tortoiseshell Small White Speckled Wood Wall Moths (25 species) Brown-tail Cinnabar Cream-spot Tiger Dark Arches Heart and Club Heart and Dart Jersey Tiger Knot Grass L-album Wainscot Large Yellow Underwing Lesser Yellow Underwing Light Brocade Marbled Minor Mother Shipton Oak Eggar Poplar Hawk-moth Portland Riband Wave Shuttle-shaped Dart Six-spot Burnet Speckled Yellow Treble Lines Vine's Rustic White Ermine White-point Yellow Shell Other Insects (14 species) 7-spot Ladybird Dark Bush-cricket Drone-fly Harlequin Ladybird Honey Bee Ivy Bee Meadow Grasshopper Oil Beetle Roesel's Bush-cricket Rose Chafer Speckled Bush-cricket Summer Chafer Swollen-thighed Beetle Volucella zonaria Marine Life (28 species) Ray spp (egg-case) Garfish Triggerfish Greater Spotted Dogfish Lesser Spotted Dogfish Goose Barnacles Spider Crab Edible Crab Hydroid Whelk Cuttlefish Blue-rayed Limpet Flat Winkle Rough Winkle Toothed Topshell Beadlet Anemone Snakelocks Anemone Seasquirt Dead Man's Fingers Pink Sea-fan Knotted Wrack Channeled Wrack Spiral Wrack Bladder Wrack Sea Lettuce Carragheen Laminaria saccharina Laminaria digitata Saccorhiza polyschides Fungi (6 species) Dryad's Saddle Field Blewits Field Mushroom Honey Fungus Velvet Shank Shaggy Inkcap

Plants (195 species) Agrimony Alexanders Annual Beard Grass Annual Meadow Grass Annual Mercury Annual Wall Rocket Autumn Gentian Autumn Ladies Tresses Bastard Toadflax Bee Orchid Birdsfoot Trefoil Biting Stonecrop Black Medick Black Mustard Black Spleenwort Blackthorn Bladder Campion Brackish Water Crowfoot Bramble Bristly Ox-tongue Broad-leaved Dock Broad-leaved Eyebright Buddleia Bulbous Buttercup Bulbous Meadow Grass Bulrush Burnet Saxifrage Bush Vetch Calamint Carline Thistle Cats-tail Charlock Clematis Cocksfoot Common Broomrape Common Centaury Common Elder Common Gromwell Common Ragwort Common Storksbill Common Toadflax Cotoneaster microphyllus Cotoneaster simonsii Cow Parsley Cowslip Creeping Buttercup Creeping Cinquefoil Crested Dogstail Crow Garlic Daisy Dandelion Dogwood Dropwort Dwarf Elder Early Gentian Early Purple Orchid English Bluebell False Brome False Oat-grass Fennel Fern Grass Field Penny-cress Field Speedwell Fodder Burnet Germander Speedwell Golden-rod Golden Samphire Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil Greater Plantain Great Hairy Willowherb Great Mullein Grey Willow Hairy Bittercress Hairy Rockcress Hard Rush Harebell Hartstongue Fern Hawkweed Ox-tongue Hawthorn Hedge Bedstraw Hemp Agrimony Herb Robert Hoary Plantain Hoary Ragwort Hoary Stock Hogweed Holly Holm Oak Honeysuckle Hop Trefoil Horseshoe Vetch Horsetail Ivy Ivy Broomrape Ivy-leaved Toadflax Japanese Knotweed Kidney Vetch Lady's Bedstraw Lady's Mantle Lesser Centaury Lesser Reedmace London Plane Maidenhair Fern Maidenhair Spleenwort Male Fern Marjoram Meadow Vetchling Milkwort Mouse-ear Hawkweed Musk Mallow Olive Willow Oxford Ragwort Pear Pendulous Sedge Polypody Portland Rock Sea-lavender Portland Spurge Prickly Sow-thistle Purple Toadflax Pyramidal Orchid Quaking Grass Red Fescue Red Valerian Restharrow Ribwort Plantain Rock Samphire Rock Sea Lavender Rock Stonecrop Rough Meadow Grass Round-leaved Cranesbill Round-leaved Fluellen Rue-leaved Saxifrage Rye Grass Sainfoin Saw-wort Sea Beet Sea Holly Sea Kale Sea Lavender Sea Mayweed Sea Radish Sea Spleenwort Shining Cranesbill Slender Thistle Soft Brome Soft Cranesbill Slime Mould Small Scabious Smooth Sow-thistle Spanish Bluebell Spear Thistle Spindle Tree Spotted Medick Square-stemmed Willowherb Squinancywort Stemless Thistle Stinging Nettle Stinking Iris Strawberry Clover Tall Fescue Teasel Thrift Timothy Tor Grass Toothed Medick Upright Brome Upright Hedge Parsley Viper's Bugloss Wall Barley Wall Rocket Wall Rue Wall Speedwell Wallflower Wayfaring Tree Weld Welted Thistle Western Polypody Whitebeam White Stonecrop Wild Cabbage Wild Carrot Wild Clary 'Wild' Gladiolus Wild Leek Wild Madder Wild Privet Wild Thyme Winter Heliotrope Wood Sage Wood Spurge Wormwood Yellow Horned-poppy Yellow Oat-grass Yellow Vetch Yellow Vetchling Yellow-wort Yorkshire Fog

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