Saturday 1st August Radipole & Lodmoor

Today Saturday 1st August I went to Weymouth and had a look at Radipole & Lodmoor RSPB reserves, I do not normally go here by public transport as it is a bit costly but as South West Trains are having a Summer Madness during august (weekends only) £10 return any where within the South West Trains region I decided I would give it a go,It had been raining most of the way down but on arriving at Weymouth the rain had stopped so my first call was at Radipole Lake I was looking for the Hooded Merganser (the bird is in eclipse at the moment) so took a while to locate but I did find it lucking under the willows by the information centre where I was told to have a look, I then took a look around Radipole birds seen Cormorant, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Gadwall, Pochard, Swallow, Sand Martins,House Martins, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Sedge warbler, Willow Warbler, & a selection of Gulls Then  after a while the rain started again just a fine drizzle so I took shelter under the bridge at the south end it did ease up so I now decided to walk the mile along the sea front to Lodmoor where on arriving I had lunch under the shelter by now the rain had stopped again I spent quite a bit of time here as waders where coming and going the first little flock of wader produce Wood Sandpiper, Dunlin, Little Stint, Redshank Common Terns where busy feeding young I then I moved on round to the west side where I had better views of the waders and found Greenshank, 3 Common Sandpipers, Little Egret (which I managed to video) along her I had Bearded Tit, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Then the rain started again so it was back to the shelter more waders where coming and going then just as I was about to leave 2 Curlew Sandpipers came in with the Dunlin, as it was starting to rain quite heavy now I decided it was time to head for the station on arriving I had just missed my train so had another 40 minutes to wait so I returned to Radipole and had another look at the Hooded Merganser so then it was back for the train so ending a very enjoyable but slightly damp day