17th March

Recent arrivals to these shores got a very rude awakening today in the face of frequent snow showers and a temperature that plummeted from yesterday's dizzy mid-teens to below zero by the end of the afternoon today. Whilst it's become the rule to be pretty dismissive of recent Common Crane records at Portland as being most likely relating to wandering 'plastic' reintroduced birds one that materialized out of the snow showers over the Bill this afternoon would seem more likely to have better credentials for being of continental origin; sadly, it disappeared out to sea without pitching in and before it could be widely viewed. Not surprisingly, the inclement conditions resulted in quite a little arrival of grounded migrants, with 15 Black-headed Gulls, 7 Wheatears, 6 Chiffchaffs, 5 Redwings, 4 Firecrests, 2 Fieldfares and singles of Golden Plover, Woodcock, Black Redstart and Goldcrest at the Bill, where 190 Meadow Pipits, another 14 Golden Plovers, 3 Wood Pigeons and a Merlin also passed through overhead; elsewhere, another Black Redstart was at Reap Lane and 5 Knot dropped in at Ferrybridge.

Thanks to Peter Moore for popping us through a nice little selection of photos from the Bill yesterday - Black Redstart, Wheatear, Stonechat and Purple Sandpiper © Peter Moore petermooreblog