Weather

A cloudy start, then fog, then rain, then sun, 14°, light to mod SW.

A strange day weather wise, the fog put the dampers on a sea-watch around 11:00, then a brief period of rain, then the sun came out, birding again.

The RNBWS folk arrived today so we had a lighthouse full of ex RN bods all into birding. So felt right at home.

Anyway, to the birds: the sea produced, 2 Pomarine Skua, 3 Arctic Skua, 150+ Kittiwake, a handful of Sandwich Tern, 5 Shelduck, 23 Common Scoter, a Great Northern Diver, 2 Red-throated Diver and 50+ Manx Shearwater etc.

Land: 2 Whimbrel, a Redpoll, 2 Willow Warbler, 4 Chiffchaff, a Reed Warbler, a Garden Warbler, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 9 Common Whitethroat, a Blackcap, a Whinchat, 3 Yellow Wagtail and 30+ Swallow.

Butterflies: Large White, Orange Tip, a Blue of some description, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Wall Brown and Meadow Brown.

Home & Away

Cloudy with a thunder storm mid-morning, 21°, light ESE.

Our final day at the Obs for this autumn and left around midday. A sea-watch early morning and then packing up to come home with a bit of birding in between.

2 Arctic Skua, a Red-throated Diver, c30 Balearic Shearwater, 2 Manx Shearwater, 3 Common Scoter, 2 Oystercatcher and c15 “Commic” Tern.

VizMig: c50 Yellow Wagtail, 5 Grey Wagtail, 10+ Swallow, 6 Sand Martin, 4 House Martin, a Swift, 4 Meadow Pipit, a Tree Pipit, plus 2 Sparrowhawk, a Chiffchaff, 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Wheatear and a Blackcap.

Dragonflies: Common Darter.

Butterflies: Red Admiral and Wall Brown.

Moths: Striped Hawkmoth, Convolvulus Hawkmoth, Hummingbird Hawkmoth, a Scar Bank Gem and a Latticed Heath.

A catchup from Tony Williams whilst I’ve been away.

Lollingdon Hill: 250+ Swallow and House Martin over.

Bunk area: Spotted Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, several Blackcap, and 4+ Chiffchaff.

5 House Martin, 3 Swift and a skein of c50 Canada Geese over Church Road this evening.

Sunrise

Convolvulus Hawkmoth

Latticed Heath courtesy John Lucas

Scar Bank Gem courtesy John Lucas

Tonight's partial Lunar Eclipse 

Portland 7th May

Sunny spells, 14°, light NE veering SE.

Our last day on Portland this spring. Very slow going this year as the weather was not conducive for visible migration.

Having said that, a change of scenery and birds was welcome, plus we got to meet some friends from previous visits which made for a good social atmosphere.

A phenomena seen today was a halo around the sun that had everyone looking and thanks to Loren for taking a few photos.

Anyway back to the birds etc: the day was broken up between packing and watching so sporadic sightings were in order: a Red-throated Diver and 2 Arctic Skua on the sea. 2 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, a Chiffchaff, a Willow Warbler, a Blackcap, c50 Swallow and a Hobby all noted either in or from the garden.

A sun halo over the observatory ↕

Spotted Flycatcher

A poor day for some

Foggy at first then sunshine, 16°, light SW.

A sea watch was out of the question until after 09:00 as the fog had blown in overnight and made viewing conditions impossible. Even when it lifted there was very little noted other than a Red-throated Diver and 3-4 Whimbrel.

Elsewhere was just as poor although singles of Spotted Flycatcher and Pied Flycatcher was slightly uplifting and a supporting cast of 5 Swallow, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Common Whitethroat and 2 Wheatear made for a very poor day list.

On the other hand, insects were abundant in the warm sunshine.

Dragonflies: Broad-bodied Chaser.

Butterflies: Small White, Green-veined White, Orange Tip, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Wall Brown and Speckled Wood.

Moths: a couple from the traps: Blairs Mocha and Beautiful Marbled.

Still, we enjoyed the sunny weather.

Day 4: Rain stopped play

Cloudy then rain, 8°, light NNE.

Day started reasonably well then rain stopped play around 13:00.

Sea-watch: 67 Bar-tailed Godwit, 5 Knot, 2 Arctic Skua, 9 Whimbrel, 10 Common Scoter, 3 Red-throated Diver, 1 Great Northern Diver, numbers of Kittiwake, Guillemot, Razorbill, Gannet and several Sandwich Tern and Oystercatcher.

Land: Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat, Common Redstart, Cuckoo, Swallow, Sand Martin and House Martin.

Razorbill

Swallow

Guillemot

Great Blackback Gull

Guillemot and a Razorbill

Oystercatcher

Day 2: Slow start

Sunny, 13°, light to breezy NE.

A bitty sea watch and a good day’s birding. Red-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, a couple of Manx Shearwater, 2 Canada Geese, a Fulmar plus usual Auk species, Shag and Gannet.

On land: 2 Common Redstart, a Black Redstart, 3 Wheatear, a Whinchat, a Stonechat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, several Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, 20+ Swallow, 2 Little Owl, 3+ Raven and a Whimbrel.

Butterflies: Small White, Holly Blue and Red Admiral.

Lesser Whitethroat

Stonechat

2 Little Owl

2 of a flock of 18 Carrion Crow

Angle Shades

Last day

Cloudy with a thunderstorm mid-afternoon, 14°, light SE.

Portland

The day started off with a sea watch as usual with a single Arctic Skua passing thru, 1 Red-throated Diver, several Manx Shearwater, 3 Common Scoter and the usual.

Whilst sea watching we heard a call from above, a couple of us recognised the call and on looking up we saw 2 Bee-eater flying fairly high overhead. Unfortunately they turned south and flew out to sea and were not seen again.

A number of migrants incoming with some seen in the Obs garden were, 1 Wheatear, 2 Tree Pipit, 25+ Swallow, 2 Swift, 6 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Willow Warbler, a Reed Warbler and a Blackcap.

Elsewhere in the bill area, a Whimbrel, 6 Turnstone, a Dunlin and 3 Oystercatcher.

A good week on Portland with a Woodchat Shrike, Hawfinch and Bee-eater the cream of 82 species seen.