The Isle of Portland, Dorset (Day Trip)

Spring:

In the spring, a wide variety of birds can be encountered either passing by or through on traditional migration routes to more northerly breeding grounds, or by accidentally ‘over shooting’ (migrating beyond their summer homes) in periods of warm and clear weather. From an extensive range of waders, ducks, terns, auks, skuas, wagtails, chats, warblers, finches and pipits, scarcer highlights could include Pomarine Skua, Woodchat Shrike and Hoopoe.

Summer:

During the mid-summer, the Isle of Portland is host to one of the UK’s most range restricted butterflies, the Lulworth Skipper, which is only found along the Dorset coast between Swanage and Burton Bradstock. We will visit favoured sites for this butterfly, and look for an impressive range of other butterflies such as Chalk Hill Blue, along with nationally scarce plants including Ivy Broomrape and Yellow Vetchling.

Autumn:

In the autumn, especially during days with light winds and cloudy skies, the long list of grounded migrant bird possibilities could include scarcities such as Melodious Warbler and Ortolan Bunting. Fresher winds and clearer skies may see a diurnal passage of wagtails, pipits and hirundines, whilst with very windy weather, attention will turn to seawatching at the ‘Bill’ where Gannets, and a variety of shearwaters, auks, skuas, gulls and terns may be passing  Early autumn will still see plenty of butterfly activity if it is sunny, with specialities including Adonis Blue, Wall and Grayling still on the wing. Portland has a rich flora and in our forays across the island by foot or car, we may encounter a number of highlights including Portland Sea-lavender, the tiny Bastard Toadflax, Golden Samphire and Hoary Stock.