5th March

Despite not really being able to undestand why we didn't record a Wheatear, it was nonetheless a pleasure to be out on a fine, calm and mild day. The first White Wagtail of the spring was an on-cue arrival at the Bill, where a fly-by Puffin was the first sighting of what we hope is a returning breeding bird; elsewhere, a Mistle Thrush was a first for the year at Southwell, whilst quality came in the form of one or more Iceland Gulls again at Chesil Cove and Ferrybridge (another sighting of a white-winged gull off West Cliffs concerned a bird that was too distant to determine whether it was a wandering Iceland Gull or yesterday's Kumlien's Gull). The back-up cast included a trickle of northbound visible migrants (Meadow Pipits along West Cliffs and 2 Chaffinches over the Bill), the Great Skua again at Ferrybridge, a Black Redstart at the Bill, 2 Red-throated Divers through off the Bill and 19 Black-necked Grebes, 10 Great Northern Divers, 8 Slavonian Grebes, 4 Red-necked Grebes, 2 Black-throated Divers, the Eider and the Black Guillemot in Portland Harbour.

 

  

  

 

Black-necked Grebes, Eider, Great Northern Diver, Iceland Gull and Mediterranean Gull - Portland Harbour and Ferrybridge, 5th March 2014 © Will Bown (Black-necked Grebes, Eider and Great Northern Diver), Brett Spencer Brett's Goosey Ganderings (Iceland Gull) and Debby Saunders (Mediterranean Gull)