8th March

The chill and damp of a hazy dawn quickly gave way to unbroken warm sunshine. With a brisk south-easterly breeze blowing through the morning there was some movement at sea, with 2 Mallards and a Little Gull - together with fair numbers of commoner gulls - through off Chesil and 20 Common Scoter, 14 Shoveler, 4 Red-throated Divers, 4 Curlews and a Mallard through off the Bill. Overhead passage consisted largely of Meadow Pipits trickling north, whilst a White Wagtail at the Bill was the best of the grounded arrivals. Points northward came up with an Iceland Gull at Ferrybridge/Chesil Beach, a Slavonian Grebe settled off Chesil and 11 Slavonian Grebes, 4 Red-necked Grebes, a Tufted Duck and a Black Guillemot in Portland Harbour.
 

Iceland Gull - Ferrybridge, 8th March 2014 © Pete Saunders