My final day at Portland this spring started with a good
fall of migrants, this time there were more “sylvia” warblers than “phyllosc”
warblers and a few more “acro’s”.
One of my best weeks stay at Portland.
Of the 442 birds ringed today, 112 were Whitethroats, 89 Blackcaps!
Shortly after dawn, there was a lot of activity in the
garden, birdwise that kept the “ringers” rather busy. Whilst we just wandered
about watching the birds passing through the garden. Luckily, the “ringers” had
some help from some folk that came down from the EGI in Oxford. For those that do
not know the EGI is the Edward Grey Institute for Ornithology.
After most of the birds had passed through the garden it was
time to look on the top fields as most migrant move on up there on their way off
the island.
So my totals are as following.
Firstly, a pod of 8 to 10 Bottlenose Dolphins passed offshore and gave quite a display, very
impressive!
The sea was very quiet; however, 1 Arctic Skua and 4 Common
Scoter were of note.
A Little Egret
flew over the Obs and a Sanderling
and a Whimbrel were both fly-overs.
A Short-eared Owl
was seen being harried by the local gull.
The movement of Swifts
today was a little down as I counted approx 100 arriving.
Also, the passage of Hirundines had slowed as just a few
hundred Swallows around 50 House Martins and a handful of Sand Martins.
A Hobby and a Sparrowhawk both seen and a Buzzard arrived, presumably in off the
sea as it was a different bird from the local ones.
Warblers were, 20+ Garden
Warblers, 150+ Blackcap, 150+ Whitethroat, 6 Lesser Whitethroats, 20+ Sedge
Warblers, 5 Grasshopper Warblers,
10+ Reed Warblers, 40+ Willow Warblers and 40+ Chiffchaff.
50+ Wheatear, 10 Whinchat, 6 Redstart added to a rather impressive list. 104 species seen this week in 6 days on
Portland, and look forward to a week in the Autumn!
Redstart
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