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...
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Male Common Redstart at Cogden on April 5th this year.
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Ring Ouzel is another species that was always special. I did quite well
I think, seeing 11 in total.
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Ring Ouzel at West Bexington on April 2nd, 2022.
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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.
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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...
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Laughing Gull on the West Bexington Mere - March 17th, 2021.
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Female Lesser Scaup (front) with two Tufties on the West
Bexington Big Pond - January 14th, 2022
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Tawny Pipit on Cogden Beach - May 11th, 2021
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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...
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Tawny Pipit twitchers, Cogden Beach - May 7th, 2021
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The remaining species are what most would label 'scarce' but are comfortably
rare enough for me to ignore that and include them here...
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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.
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Red-backed Shrike, West Bexington - August 24th, 2021, c/o Mike
and Alan again.
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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.
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Hoopoe at West Bexington - April 29th, 2022. Mike and Alan once
again.
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Mike and Alan's fabulous Woodchat Shrike at Cogden on April 6th,
2024.
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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...
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Hoopoe, Burton Bradstock - May 2nd, 2017 (Photo by Mike Morse)
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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.
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Golden Oriole, West Bexington - May 27th, 2020
Illustration
by Alan Harris, taken from my chapter in the book
Low Carbon Birding
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Easily one of my favourite finds ever, this male
Red-backed Shrike at Cogden on June 8th, 2020 was completely out
of the blue.
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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!
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Cirl Bunting, West Bexington - Jan 1st, 2021
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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!
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Finding this Stone-curlew at Cogden Beach on April 22nd, 2021 was
such a buzz.
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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.
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Greenland Redpoll at Cogden - October 30th, 2021
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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.
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Barred Warbler, West Bay - October 18th, 2022. This amazing photo
was taken by Peter Coe.
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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.
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Garganey, West Bay - August 19th, 2023. A very decent find for
West Bay.
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Wryneck at Cogden - September 28th, 2023. Cogden was generous
with Wrynecks, this being my third there, and by far the most
photogenic.
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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
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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One of several Grey Phalaropes I encountered off Cogden in 2023,
this one on September 27th.
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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.
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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.
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Photos by Tom Brereton of a Leach's Petrel off West Bay on
November 24th, 2022
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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.
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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.
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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...
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This spindly-legged 1w Casp at East Bexington on October 5th 2020
was later seen in Oxfordshire and Bucks.
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A scraggy beast of a Glaucous Gull at West Bexington on May 13th,
2022 - found by Mike and Alan.
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My one and only West Bay Casp, this hefty 1w was on the tiny Brit
Estuary - October 12th, 2023
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Loveliest Casp ever - Cogden Beach, September 8th, 2024. Later
seen on Portland.
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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...
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Water Pipit at West Bay on October 25th, 2023. Suspected with
bins, confirmed with camera. My one and only West Dorset
Water Pipit.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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Cirl Bunting at West Bay - October 24th, 2023
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Cirl Bunting at West Bay - November 1st, 2024
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And sometimes other buntings will pop up unexpectedly...
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September 2019, and a typically confiding Lapland Bunting at
Cogden Beach - found by Nick Senior.
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Snow Bunting at the West Bay vis-mig point - November 7th, 2020.
Found by Tom Brereton.
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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...
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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...
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Abbotsbury Beach, August 2020
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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...
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Sibe Chiff at Chideock on December 17th, 2019 - originally
discovered by Richard Phillips.
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A filter bed at Punknowle STW - January 22nd, 2022.
Siberian Chiffchaff (top left) with two regular
P. collybita
birds.
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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...
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March 2022 - Scandinavian Rock Pipit at Burton Bradstock.
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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...
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Probably the best Black Redstart pic I'm ever likely to get. West
Bay - February 28th, 2023.
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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...
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Loads of space to breathe...
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