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30 Apr 2009

Well collared.

When news broke Tuesday night of a 1st summer male Collared Flycatcher in a private garden (with no access) on Portland my immediate reaction was 'Oh well' there will be another............' With meetings in Hereford & Birmingham the next day it wasn't looking good even if the bird was refound which, full of pessimism, I didn't expect!

Against all expectations it was refound Wednesday morning and was viewable from the public road! B*gger!!!! Bang went my nice round trip from home to Hereford to Birmingham and then home. I'd have to go to Portland as well if time allowed. Computing mileage and times I figured if I could leave Birmingham before 15.00 I'd get to Portland with a couple of hours daylight to spare. I left at 14.45 and got there just after 18.00 thanks to some directions from Dan 'Paddy' Pointon that enabled me to bypass the worst of the Dorchester rush hour traffic.

Arriving in to find about 20 people lined up on the pavement peering down a drive between two houses the bird soon showed but in typical flycatcher fashion hardly stayed still long enough to photograph. Still the obligatory 'record shots' were obtained for the blog and the bird showed on and off until dusk.



A muttering amongst the crowd got louder as news filtered through of another'mega' in Kent. This time a Crested Lark at Dungeness. That one would have to wait!!!!!

The long drive home was made longer by the M6 being closed at Junction 10. Nice of the idiots in charge not to sign post a diversion. I ended up driving along the M54 and up the A41 to Chester arriving home just after midnight.

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