LODMOOR AND LONGHAM LAKES

Long Billed Dowicther

LODMOOR

We decided to go down to Weymouth to see the Long Billed Dowicther that has been seen there for a couple of weeks.

Long Billed Dowicther and 2 Dunlin

We left home at 6:00 am hoping for a good day of Birding, we were a bit worried that the bird may have moved on because of all the snow showers. There was quite a covering of snow as we went through Dorset, but when we arrived at Weymouth around 9:00 am we arrived at the sight round about 9:15 and we went straight to the viewing platform were the bird get's seen, when we arrived at the platform there was a pair of birders looking at some bird and we asked if they had seen the dowicther they said that it is just in with those Teal, we set the telescope up and started looking for this bird in amongst the teal. The Long Billed Dowicther was feeding amongst the Ducks you could see the nice face markings the pure supercilium as we were watching a Black Tailed Godwit was feeding just next to the bird so you could get really go size comparison.





Water Rail



Whilst scanning the reserve i heard two Water Rails calling and then seen flying out onto the bank got some shots but really bad ones sorry about that about the pic

 other birds noted were

1 Kingfisher flying around.

Lots of Snipe.

Teal.

Shovler.

Dunlin.

Marsh harrier.

Turnstone.

LONGHAM LAKES

Hoopoe

When we got back to Weymouth station the news broke out of a hoopoe at Longham lakes on the way home so we decided to see that stunning looking bird. 

We arrived at branskome train station with a 5 five mile bike ride a head of oh joy; we arrived at the Lakes round about 40 minutes later thanks to the GPS.

Hoopoe

After we padlocked the bikes up we tried to find out just were the Hoopoe was getting seen and then we saw 3 birders standing on the bank watching this bird so we headed to were they were and they said that they had just seen it fly out of view what a bummer.



Hoopoe



After about 15-20 minutes some man flushed this big bird out and it gave some amazing but quick views of it in flight we then followed it down the path and dad said don't move it is just down there so we were able to watched  it for about 10-20 minutes you could see all the marking on the head and on the wings the Hoopoe then flew of in the direction it came from on the way back to were we first saw we saw a snipe like bird fly up and id it as a jack snipe  which was a year tick, there was no more sigh of any hoopoe we then left very happy and satisfied

Other birds noted

Pied Wagtail.

Kingfisher.

Grey wagtail.

Kestrel.

Stonechat.

Tufted duck.

Grey Heron.

Buzzard

Meadow Pipit

Bullfinches

Goldfinches

Great tits.