Portland has had one or two fly-by Buff-breasted Sandpipers in the past but all of those have subsequently been found settled - this is the first that looks to have been solely a visible migrant that didn't stop © Joe Stockwell:
...as it was a morning when quite a few Golden Plovers passed through it's interesting to compare the appearances of these two potential confusion species © Joe Stockwell:
The Siberian Lesser Whitethroat looks likely to have provided a timely lesson in the potential for overcounting - even when only two birds are involved: it was first spotted on the Slopes where a well-timed/jammy photo captured the tail pattern very well © Joe Stockwell:
...when one was trapped and ringed several hundred metres away at the Obs a couple of hours later it was certainly assumed that this was a second individual (genuine multiple occurrences have been quite frequent here in the past)...
...however, now we've had a closer look at the photos it's quite obvious that the fourth from outside tail feather on the right side on both birds is a shorter, presumably still growing replacement for a lost feather - this could just be a freaky coincidence but we wouldn't mind betting that they're one and the same bird! © Martin Cade:
The history of the Tree Sparrow at Portland is quite peculiar and rather reflects the change in status in Dorset as a whole: in the earliest days of the Obs the species was a notable scarcity county-wide, such that 22 at the Bill in 1957 was considered to be unprecedented; there followed a remarkable increase when breeding populations were established in many areas of the county and Portland totals reached the dizzy heights of hundreds a day (the all-time peak was 700 on 12th October 1970); the decline that followed was just as sudden, with only a handful of residual breeding colonies persisting beyond the mid-1980s; although Tree Sparrows are still just about annual visitors to the island, today's bird is only the fourth ringed at the Obs in the last 30 years © Keith Pritchard (flying) and Martin Cade (settled and in-hand):
This morning's Yellow-browed Warbler was the second in succession to be mist-netted in the maize strips in the Crown Estate Field © Martin Cade:
Finally, thanks to Dave Foot for passing us a lovely photo of one of Portland's local speciality micro-moths, Coast Spurge Bell Acroclita subsequana - Dave bred this specimen through from larvae found a few weeks ago on spurge on East Cliffs at the Bill. In Britain, subsequana is restricted to a few coastal sites between south Devon and Sussex; for a long time Portland was its sole Dorset site but it's also now known to occur on Purbeck per Sean Foote © Dave Foot:
