27th April

Unseasonable Storm Hannah that had gather momentum overnight reached a peak around dawn but proved to be a damp squib from the birding point of view and certainly an ill wind for fragile leaves and the like that sustained plenty of damage throughout the island. A Melodious Warbler that showed briefly in Helen's Fields may have been the individual from a couple of days ago but the presence or otherwise of a ring wasn't established before it went to ground. High hopes for the sea were quickly dashed: despite the trying conditions it was soon apparent that there was little on the move, with 14 Arctic Skuas, 4 Great Skuas and a Pomarine Skua through off the Bill and 2 each of Arctic Skua and Pomarine Skua and a lone Great Skua off Chesil; elsewhere, a westward movement of 75 Common Terns through Ferrybridge was unexpected. The land was hard work and largely unrewarding: a Hobby passed through at the Bill and a lone Pied Flycatcher was the best of the handful of grounded migrants there.

A few skuas - including this Arctic Skua off Chesil - were about all that could be mustered from the sea today © Steve Gantlett cleybirds: