Ten Years in West Dorset

This mega-post has been in prep for a while. Essentially it is a potted summary of ten years birdwatching in West Dorset, between 2015 and 2025. My enthusiasm and application during that period waxed and waned considerably - which might explain why some years do not feature at all - but I hope this account will nevertheless serve as encouragement for folk who prefer the quiet life, away from the hurly-burly of birding honeypots. Apart from less than a handful of visits to Portland and Weymouth, my West Dorset birding during that decade was carried out entirely at underwatched locations between Lyme Regis and Abbotsbury, and it is them alone that feature here. The tiny number of regulars in this area were always helpful and communicative, but we didn't bump into one another that often; on by far the majority of outings I wouldn't see another birder.

I wondered how to compile this post in a way that covered everything I wanted to talk about without being too tedious, so have shied away from the chronological approach. Instead, I have used a bunch of random sub-headings. Hopefully it will work...

Migrants

Birding the coast of a county like Dorset, you would expect 'common' migrants to be a feature, right? Well, they are, but not necessarily in the kind of numbers you might think. In spring especially, anticyclonic weather would generally see the majority going straight over us without stopping. So birds like my favourite Common Redstart were far from 'common' and always a proper treat...

Male Common Redstart at Cogden on April 5th this year. 

Ring Ouzel is another species that was always special. I did quite well I think, seeing 11 in total.

Ring Ouzel at West Bexington on April 2nd, 2022.

October 9th, 2023 saw a decent arrival of Ring Ouzels along the Dorset coast. I was fortunate enough to encounter a total of seven that day at Cogden.

Obviously there are many other species that technically are migrants, but a few will pop up elsewhere in this post so I'll get on to something a bit more zesty... 

 

Rarities

Quite frankly, I would imagine many birders in various parts of the country covering a similar acreage for the last ten years will have amassed a longer list of rare birds than me. In fact I think my tally of pukka British Birds rarities is a massive three. So most of what follows shouldn't even be under this heading...

Laughing Gull on the West Bexington Mere - March 17th, 2021.

Female Lesser Scaup (front) with two Tufties on the West Bexington Big Pond - January 14th, 2022

Tawny Pipit on Cogden Beach - May 11th, 2021

The Laughing Gull was found by Mike Morse, the Lesser Scaup by Mike with Alan Barrett, and the gorgeous Tawny Pipit by Nick Senior. The latter stuck around for a few days and prompted an actual twitch...

Tawny Pipit twitchers, Cogden Beach - May 7th, 2021

The remaining species are what most would label 'scarce' but are comfortably rare enough for me to ignore that and include them here...

May 16th, 2017 - this Short-toed Lark found on Cogden Beach by Mike and Alan was a first for the West Bex & Cogden recording area. Photo by Mike Morse.

 

Red-backed Shrike, West Bexington - August 24th, 2021, c/o Mike and Alan again.

Yellow-browed Warbler, Happy Island, Bridport - March 26th, 2022. Not sure who discovered this little beauty, but I am grateful to them for providing a bit of springtime rare bird excitement just ten minutes walk from my front door.

Hoopoe at West Bexington - April 29th, 2022. Mike and Alan once again.

Mike and Alan's fabulous Woodchat Shrike at Cogden on April 6th, 2024.

I could add another Cogden Woodchat (found by Paul Harris) and probably a few other bits and bobs, but some of these will fit better under other headings. Like the next one, for example...

 

Finds

I do enjoy the thrill of a nice find. I am not what you would call a purposeful birdwatcher, and much of my birding time is spent in the hope of stumbling across something unusual. And just occasionally that does actually happen. So under this sub-heading I am going to list a number of my finds. I never find BB rarities, so don't expect anything on that level. Even so, I didn't do too badly...

Hoopoe, Burton Bradstock - May 2nd, 2017 (Photo by Mike Morse)

Only my second outing after a hiatus of several months, I really did not deserve a Hoopoe. It was the start of a nice little purple patch that spring.

Golden Oriole, West Bexington - May 27th, 2020
Illustration by Alan Harris, taken from my chapter in the book Low Carbon Birding

Easily one of my favourite finds ever, this male Red-backed Shrike at Cogden on June 8th, 2020 was completely out of the blue.

Pink-footed Goose with Canadas, East Bexington - October 9th, 2020. A decent Dorset rarity, and a first for the West Bex & Cogden recording area once it had flown into the relevant airspace!

Cirl Bunting, West Bexington - Jan 1st, 2021

In the light of what has happened in the subsequent five years it is easy to forget the significance of that grainy Cirl pic. At the time it was taken I had been living in the South West for almost 20 years but had never seen a Cirl Bunting east of the River Exe. That evening I researched Cirl ID, emailed contacts in Devon and eventually talked to Mike, only to discover that he too had encountered the bird that day with Alan, and was going through the exact same process as me! So we compared photos. Snap!

Finding this Stone-curlew at Cogden Beach on April 22nd, 2021 was such a buzz.

Melodious Warbler at Cogden - July 26th, 2021. Accepted as 'Hippolais sp' by Dorset Bird Club, but will forever be Melodious in my book. A massively frustrating bird. Brief views, ropey pics and single observer is never a great formula.

Greenland Redpoll at Cogden - October 30th, 2021

The above Redpoll has spurious claim to this category, because I didn't find it. I was aware it had been seen the previous day by some other birders, but didn't know exactly where. I had even seen photos, but they failed to ring any alarm bells. At this point it was just a Redpoll. And then I stumbled across the bird by chance. It was so super-confiding that I ended up spending a fair bit of time with it and took some photos. Thankfully, alarm bells did ring, which led to a load of sleuthing. Long story short: it was Dorset's first Common Redpoll of the Greenland type.

Since that happy day, taxonomists have lumped all Redpolls and spoiled our fun. I am bad at keeping up with all that kind of stuff, but I expect there is no longer any such thing as a Greenland Redpoll. Still, it was a cracking bird, and definitely one of the most satisfying birdy puzzles of my...er...career. 

Barred Warbler, West Bay - October 18th, 2022. This amazing photo was taken by Peter Coe.

Barred Warbler is not annual in Dorset, so definitely one of the rarest county birds I've found. It stuck around for quite a while and was well twitched.

Garganey, West Bay - August 19th, 2023. A very decent find for West Bay.

Wryneck at Cogden - September 28th, 2023. Cogden was generous with Wrynecks, this being my third there, and by far the most photogenic.

I thought about including this lovely Sabine's Gull under a different heading, but it probably fits best into the 'finds' category. Cogden, August 31st, 2025

I could add a heard-only Cogden Quail to this section; also perhaps a number of birds seen on or over the sea, but I think the next bit is more appropriate for them...

 

The Sea

There is something about the mechanics of seawatching that makes it hard for me to think of a quality passing bird as a 'find'. Basically you are just sitting there with your eye to the scope and...pow!...a bird! You don't really 'find' such a bird, you simply happen to be there when it flies by. Anyway, I am pleased to say that there were a few such birds. Here are some of them...

This dodgy photo taken with my old Panasonic Lumix depicts 9 Pomarine Skuas heading E low over the sea off Burton Bradstock on May 12th, 2017. They first appeared in front of Steve Waite and Richard Phillips off Seaton seafront in Devon, and were tracked along the South Coast past Hurst Point in Hampshire and into the Solent.

I need to say a few words about Pom Skua. West Dorset was very kind to me with this species, especially in 2017. Prior to this flock of nine I had a flock of 12 past Burton Bradstock on May 6th, the biggest I have seen anywhere. For inner Lyme Bay this is mega stuff.

April 15th, 2019. These Garganey flashed past me close in at Burton Bradstock, but I was late onto the flock and had them as 'possibles'. Thankfully Joe nailed them.

One of several Grey Phalaropes I encountered off Cogden in 2023, this one on September 27th.

I'm cheating here, but it's such a lovely photo that I cannot resist. This Grey Phalarope was not on the sea, but inland at The Bride Valley Fish Farm on November 1st, 2020. Found by Nick Senior.

Several of my fondest West Dorset seawatching memories involve the concrete shelter at West Bay, a raging sea, and these remarkable little birds. The only time I ever managed to get a Leach's Petrel in the viewfinder - November 2nd, 2022.

Photos by Tom Brereton of a Leach's Petrel off West Bay on November 24th, 2022

My West Dorset Leach's Petrel tally -  a remarkable 12 month period that I doubt I'll ever see the like of again. All from West Bay.

Far and away my favourite West Bay seabird event. In the light of recent happenings a fly-by Great Shearwater one day was not really unexpected, but a close-in, lingering-off-the-seafront Great Shearwater most certainly was! September 20th, 2023.

In addition to my Cogden Sabine's Gull featured earlier I saw a different bird at West Bay in September this year, and two on November 9th, 2022 - at West Bay and at Sea Town - all found by others. I could probably list a few more decent birds under this heading, but don't have photos to jog my memory. So, on to...

 

Gulls

Everyone's favourite birds.

The biggest surprise was the relative abundance of Med Gulls, compared to what I was used to seeing just 15-20 miles away in East Devon. Not all the time, but a three-figure count was nothing special on occasion. Apart from that, digging out quality gulls was not easy. Still, I managed to find five Caspian Gulls and see a couple of Glaucous Gulls too...

This spindly-legged 1w Casp at East Bexington on October 5th 2020 was later seen in Oxfordshire and Bucks.

A scraggy beast of a Glaucous Gull at West Bexington on May 13th, 2022 - found by Mike and Alan.

My one and only West Bay Casp, this hefty 1w was on the tiny Brit Estuary - October 12th, 2023

Loveliest Casp ever - Cogden Beach, September 8th, 2024. Later seen on Portland.

 

Technological Assists

A fair number of my decent West Dorset birds were either found or confirmed with the assistance of technology. Nocmig records are obviously in this category, but I realise not all birders are comfortable with 'counting' nocmig birds. So I probably shouldn't mention my nocmig Night Heron, two Quails, two Stone-curlews, two Nightjars and various quality waders. So I won't. However, in addition to one or two that have featured already - like Pink-footed Goose and that first Cirl Bunting - I shall mention these...

Water Pipit at West Bay on October 25th, 2023. Suspected with bins, confirmed with camera. My one and only West Dorset Water Pipit.

Osprey heading W, a few hundred yards offshore at West Bay - September 3rd, 2024. Again, suspected with bins, confirmed with camera. And again, my one and only West Dorset Osprey.

I've included Firecrest in this category for two reasons. One, as an excuse to trot out this lovely photo; and two, because the Merlin app 'heard' and therefore put me onto a few Firecrests that I would not otherwise have seen. A Firecrest's call is ridiculously high-pitched, and my hearing is pretty knackered nowadays.

Buntings

This heading gives me another opportunity to mention Cirl Bunting. In 2023 Cirls bred in Dorset for the first time since 1971, and it was a privilege to be there and see it happen at Cogden, and to witness their sudden revival as a resident species in the county. Hopefully things will go from strength to strength for them. A consequence of their success is the chance of encountering a Cirl almost anywhere along the coast now. By complete fluke I happened to be at the West Bay vis-mig point on two occasions when a passing Cirl popped up there...

Cirl Bunting at West Bay - October 24th, 2023

Cirl Bunting at West Bay - November 1st, 2024

And sometimes other buntings will pop up unexpectedly...

September 2019, and a typically confiding Lapland Bunting at Cogden Beach - found by Nick Senior.

Snow Bunting at the West Bay vis-mig point - November 7th, 2020. Found by Tom Brereton.

 

COVID-19

2020 was the strangest year, and deserves a little slot of its own here.

The first lockdown gave us a spring of long walks...

The National Trust car park at Hive Beach, Burton Bradstock on April 11th, 2020. A beautiful day on the Easter weekend. In normal times this place would be rammed.

2020 was the year that many birders first dabbled with nocmig recording, me included. The number and variety of birds that pass through the airspace above our homes at night was a revelation. I had only been at it about a fortnight when this happened...

Stone-curlew - 01:13 on April 22nd, 2020

2020 was also the year that many birders made more than the usual effort to list birds seen/heard from home, frequently using the #BWKm0 hashtag to flag up their sightings. I had all sorts of one-offs from the garden that year, including Greylag, Whimbrel, Nightjar, a fly-over Cuckoo, and this...

Fulmar from the garden - May 22nd, 2020. I lived three miles inland, so this was a massive surprise. I wish I had framed this shot to include rooftops.

As the spring progressed and restrictions eased a bit, I made an effort to hear - and hopefully see - a bird that I was aware of but had been unable to do much about...

Very early morning on May 19th, 2020 - Nightingale at West Bexington. Still the only Nightingale I've seen or heard in 23 years here in the South West. It performed wonderfully.

When the first lockdown lifted, glorious weather combined with restrictions on travelling abroad led to a mass migration to the coast. Abbotsbury Beach, for example, became an insalubrious tented city. The closure of public toilets made it worse...

Abbotsbury Beach, August 2020

 

Projects

Focusing your birding efforts on locations away from the popular hotspots does inevitably mean there will be a lot of quiet time, when pretty much all you see are the regular species. However, I did find inspiration here. In particular, two 'projects' occupied a fair bit of quiet time. One involved trying to find and identify Siberian Chiffchaffs. I only knew of two small sewage treatment works close to home, at Chideock and Punknowle, but both produced winter Sibe Chiffs...

Sibe Chiff at Chideock on December 17th, 2019 - originally discovered by Richard Phillips.

A filter bed at Punknowle STW - January 22nd, 2022. Siberian Chiffchaff (top left) with two regular P. collybita birds.

To be fair I did get most of my tristis jollies at the treatment works in East Devon, but I can't include that in a post entitled Ten Years in West Dorset...

Probably my most entertaining project involved trying to prove that at least a proportion of our local wintering Rock Pipits were of the Scandinavian race Anthus petrosus littoralis. I spent many absorbing hours photographing Rock Pipits in such a way that I might be able to recognise individuals by unique feather patterns (tertials were especially useful for this) and thereby keep tabs on them as the winter progressed into spring. It wasn't easy, but was a lot of fun. In the end I didn't witness a single bird moult into the distinctive plumage of a classic littoralis, but - based on what the expert literature said - did nail one through its tertial and tail moult...

March 2022 - Scandinavian Rock Pipit at Burton Bradstock.

I strongly suspect that many of my friendly Rock Pipits were indeed littoralis birds, but simply couldn't prove it. Still, poking about where the Rockits live had other compensations...

Probably the best Black Redstart pic I'm ever likely to get. West Bay - February 28th, 2023.

 

So that's it really. Ten years in West Dorset is probably a lame title, but that's exactly what this post is about. It is not exhaustive - no mention of the fabulous Goshawks for example - but includes most of the highlights. But one thing that this post definitely does not convey is something which is very difficult to get across in a two-dimensional medium, but is summed up by the final photo...

Loads of space to breathe...