Portland Bird Observatory

Portland Bird Observatory
and Field Centre

The Natural History of the Isle of Portland Video

* 3 years in the making

* Superb high-quality digital video

* 140 minutes running time

* Profits go to PBO and The Dorset Wildlife Trust



Contents

The Video features:

Birds - over 110 species including rarities such as: Barred, Pallas's, Radde's and Yellow-browed Warblers, Golden Oriole, Wryneck and exclusive footage of Blyth's Pipit in the hand.

Butterflies - including: Adonis, Silver-spotted and Small Blue, Lulworth Skipper, Painted Lady, Clouded Yellow and the fabulous Monarch.

Dragonflies - including Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies, Emperor Dragonfly and Migrant Hawker.

Flowers - over 110 species including: Bee. Green-winged, Early Purple and Wasp Orchids, Autumn Gentian, Bithynian Vetch, Hairy-fruited Cornsalad and Shepherd's Needle.

Moths - including: six species of Hawk-moth, Jersey Tiger, Orache Moth, Portland Ribbon Wave and Britain's 3rd Egyptian Bollworm.

Plus - other exciting footage of Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Wasp Spider, Wall Lizard, fungi such as Parrot Waxcap and Sulphur Tuft, and the rarely filmed, near endemic Scaly Cricket.

Filmed, narrated and edited by PBO member Charlie Moores - Charles Moores Video Productions tel. mobile 07771 728939, Email SpdBdVid@aol.com

Text, Research and some additional photography by PBO secretary Peter Mowday.

To purchase your video:

Please send a cheque made payable to: 'PBO Bookshop' for Ł15.00 (or Ł17.50 including postage within the UK) to: Portland Bird Observatory, The Old Lower Light, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2JT. Telephone: ++44 (0)1305 820553.

Review

Video review:

Dorset is a most beautiful county. Then you come to the end of Weymouth and are confronted by this big, ugly, scarred lump of rock that is bewitching and beckoning - the Isle of Portland. Everyone comes away with their own special memories. My own two are of a reported albatross that I missed by 30 seconds and a bedraggled Pied Flycatcher that made its first landfall on my tripod.

   I've had several holidays in the area now and thought I knew it reasonably well. Wrong! The trouble is that most birders tend to just head down to the end of the island - Portland (Bill) because that is where statistically, most of the action takes place.

   After watching this video, I realise that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface. At times, I wondered if I hadn't been birding in a parallel universe somewhere, so little did I recognise with woods and quarries, all ripe for exploration, seemingly everywhere.

   But the birds - well over 100 species are shown - are just a fraction of the wildlife. This fantastic video covers the lot. There is a heavy emphasis on wildflowers, many of which, to my shame, I have never heard of before but there are butterflies, lizards, dragonflies, lichens, fungi and mammals too.

   Shot over the past three years, the video looks at Portland through the seasons. Photography and commentary are excellent though the quiet speaking voice is a bit drowned out by background noise on a couple of occasions.

   Lasting over two hours 20 minutes, it is excellent value for money which will be split between Portland Bird Observatory and Dorset Wildlife Trust. I recommend it heartily.

Gordon Hamlett. Bird Watching magazine (published on the 30th of every month, available at most newsagents).