2 photos of the Bee Orchid.For my girlfriends birthday treat we went down to Portland to stay at a spa so she could have treatments and relax and I could go birding!! News was promising on Friday morning before we had left as a Black-Winged Stilt had turned up at Radipole Lake. But due to lack of signal in parts of the journey down i'd missed the message that told me it had buggered off an hour before I arrived! A drake Garganey would have been nice had I seen it but I did actually manage a first for me in the shape of a Bee Orchid that was growing next to the main path! I tried nearby Lodmoor for the stilt but the only thing of interest there was a Great Black-Backed Gull that swallowed whole a 2-3 ft long eel! Down at Portland bill 3 Kittiwakes were seen with numerous Guillemots and Gannets but a Shag that flew past was a year tick.
The Saturday didn't really get much better bird wise with 2 Mediterranean Gulls past the bill and finding the only Wheatear on the island that day!
The last morning before we came home saw or rather heard a Lesser Whitethroat by the entrance to the spa and a half hour sea watch off the bill did finally produce a couple of good birds. The very strong wind saw that at least 20 Manx Shearwaters fly past and just before I packed up a Balearic Shearwater flew East but a bit further out than the 2 I saw there on my last stay down here.
A brief stop off further up the East side of the island at Cheyne Weares saw a pair of Peregrines flying around the cliff.
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