Portland: Day 7.

Sunny, 18°, light SW.

A very protracted sea watch today and hard work on the land.

1 Arctic Skua and 9 Common Scoter.

A Cattle Egret in, off the sea, a Marsh Harrier, Little Owl, 64 Swallow, 4 House Martin, 2 Sand Martin, 8 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Grey Wagtail, 100+ Meadow Pipit, 2 Tree Pipit, 2 Wheatear, 3 Whinchat, 12 Stonechat, 12 Chiffchaff and a single Willow Warbler.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Large White, Small White, Common Blue?, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Speckled Wood and Small Heath.

Sunrise

Painted Lady

Whinchat (above & below)

Stonechat

Portland Bill

Day 7: cold and Windy

Mainly cloudy with some light rain, 10°, breezy NNE.

A cold and windy day that produced very few birds on both land and sea and little motivation.

Sea-watch: 7 Whimbrel, 4 Common Scoter, 5 Manx Shearwater and that was about it other than the regulars.

Land: Willow Warbler, 178 ringed in the obs garden today! Several Chiffchaff, 2 Common Whitethroat, 2 Cuckoo and 1 Tree Pipit.

A trip out to Ferrybridge: 5 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2+ Ringed Plover, c10 Dunlin and several Little Tern and Sandwich Tern.

Find the Gannet

A cropped shot

Blackbird with prey

HMS St Alban's off Portland

Day 1:Arrival

Sunny spells and showers,13°, breezy NW.

Arrived a little later in the day so not much time for birding.

9 Common Scoter flying east and a few Gannet and Shag passing by. 800+ Gulls feeding offshore.

Butterflies: Holly Blue.

view from the observatory

Boxing Day

Cloudy, 10°, light SE.

A short drive down to Portland Bill for breakfast then a bit of birding.

3 Fieldfare in-off, a Redwing and 2 Stonechat in the Crown Fields, 4-5 Raven, 2 Buzzard, several Rock Pipit, a Shelduck flew east and an Oystercatcher over the Obs.

On the sea, a steady flow of Guillemot back and forth, 20+ Gannet, a handful of Common Scoter and a Diver (pos Black-throated).

A Ringed Plover heard flying over Rodwell @ 19:00.

Lunch

Thin cloud and sunny, 14°, light WSW.

Portland  

A seawatch today produced 1 Balearic Shearwater along with 20+ Manx Shearwater and an unusual (for this time of year) passage of 200+ Common Scoter plus the usual.

4000+ Gulls still feeding off the Bill, mainly Herring Gull so there must still be a quantity of fish out there for them.

On land a rather sparse passage of birds consisting of a Whimbrel, 2 Willow Warbler, 4+ Chiffchaff, a Blackcap, a Reed Warbler, 25+ Swallow and a House Martin.

A Corn Bunting and a Peregrine also noted.

Just after posting this a Little Owl was calling just outside our window at the Obs.  

Herring Gull taking lunch, courtesy Loren

Linnet bathing

Razorbill

Gannets

Greater Blackback Gull

Rock Pipit

A Spring like day

Sunshine, 12°, light W.

A Merlin seen today flying low over a stubble field at the top of Westfield road. Per Hugh Pope.

A walk out to Lollingdon today produced, 3 singing Chiffchaff (5 in total), a Little Egret, Little Owl, c20 Meadow Pipit and 2 Raven and a handful of Fieldfare.

20+ Yellowhammer still around the Little Lollingdon area, plus 5 Reed Bunting and a flock of c30 Linnet. Several Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting flycatching from the hedge top.

Bunk line, Little Owl, Meadow Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Linnet, singing Chiffchaff and Goldcrest.

Update: Calls from at least 2 Common Scoter passing overhead moving north east at 20:48.

Mammals: Brown Hare & Roe Deer.  

Several butterfly’s on the wing today with Brimstone, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Comma.

Alan also had a Dark-edged Bee-fly.

Peacock on Holly-leaved Berberis

Comma courtesy Alan

Dark-edged Bee-fly courtesy Alan

Chiffchaff doing its best to hide

Watching me watching you. A smart Roe Buck

Yellowhammer

Reed Bunting

Scoters

Around 21:30 last night both Michael Pocock and I were outside in our respective gardens unbeknown to each other and both heard calls from migrating birds overhead.

When I came back in I checked on the calls and came to the conclusion they were Common Scoter. Michael also arrived at the same conclusion and emailed me today regarding the calls.

Common Scoter are a sea duck that breed in Arctic Russia and Scandinavia and winter south to the English Channel, North Sea, Irish and Iberian coast. In spring they migrate back to the Arctic usually thru the North Sea and are increasingly heard and recorded migrating overland by birders listening for Nocturnal Migration (NocMig) and the odd individual or small flock will turn up on inland waters such as Farmoor reservoir in Oxfordshire.

We are both quite confident on our ID of the species and it is the first record of Common Scoter in Cholsey.

Interestingly on the night of 8th March a flock of Scoter were recorded flying over Headington, Oxford using a NocMig recording device.

Might have to get one of those devices myself! Beats sitting out in the garden on cold nights listening.

Back to today, both Alan and I along the Bunk line, morning and afternoon with little to show for it.

Little Owl, 2 Herring Gull, a single Lesser Blackback Gull and several Black-headed Gull, 25+ Fieldfare and 250+ Starling.

My only photo of Common Scoter taken off Portland, Dorset

What they actually look like (courtesy the Crossley ID Guide)

Back to earth with some local Starlings

Portland & Cholsey

Overcast, misty 10°, breezy SW.

By the time we arrived most of the land migrants had passed through so a brief sea watch produced an Arctic Skua, a couple of Common Scoter and Manx Shearwater.

The best bird of the day was a Grasshopper Warbler heard this morning along the brook that runs alongside Whitehead Meadow before we left for Portland.

Some news from the Eastender today: a Swift with several House Martin this evening over the garden and several Common Whitethroat along the Bunk line.

Also a few Orange Tip Butterfly.