The weather hasn’t been to good from the beginning of January so when it looked promising we decided to take a trip to Portland and Weymouth for the day. I was hoping to see the Short Eared Owls on Portland but unfortunately when we got there it was very windy but bright so it wasn’t to be. We had a walk to see what else was about and we were pleased to see a number of Skylarks and I managed to get a picture of one on the ground instead of flying high in the air when I see them at home. We only stayed for a short while as it was so windy and cold, most of the birds were keeping a low profile.

We went onto Radipole Lake to spend a couple of hours there after a Big Mac lunch across the road from the lake!

I walked around to the North Screens I saw a Marsh Harrier in the distance but wasn’t lucky enough to see one close. There was plenty to see though, the first animal I spotted was a Rat on the path in front of me, he soon scurried away when I got near him.

I spent some time the hide there were quite a lot of birds on the water and on the way back I saw a female Stonechat on the reeds and a Moorhen along the path.

On the way home we stopped in Blandford for some shopping and while we were there we took our dog Tilly for a short walk along the Stour meadows and we were lucky enough to see an Otter. The river was high and running fast from the weir and the Otter was struggling to swim up river but he was getting plenty to eat. A real bonus as we hadn’t seen an Otter for a while.