9th April

The cloud cover that lingered for the early morning led to a nice little rush to begin the day with the majority of the 105 birds ringed today caught within the first couple of hours. Although the influx was dominated by Willow Warblers, it also brought with it Portland's tenth Nuthatch and the fifth to be ringed. A late incomer for the runner-up bird of the day came from a singing Serin in a garden in Southwell.  The trickle of less common wagtails and pipits continued with three Yellow Wagtails, a handful of White Wagtails and a Tree Pipit. The sea gave an awful lot of quantity if not a great variety with the days total of Common Scoter falling just short of 500 at 492. Also on the sea were a pair of Puffins, ten each of Red-throated Diver and Manx Shearwater and an Arctic Skua.

Portland's tenth ever Nuthatch was a nice highlight of the day and it wasn't hanging around: soon after dawn it was watched moving quickly through the hut field bushes before next turning up in a mist-net at the Obs; not long after release it surprised the ringers operating up the road at Culverwell when it turned up in one of their nets as well. Quite apart from being rare here, Nuthatch has a pretty random occurrence pattern through the migration seasons with our records coming from February, April (2), May (2), June (2), September, October and November © Martin Cade:

There was plenty of urgency to today's other arrivals as well, with the phylloscs in particular moving rapidly through the tree-tops at the Obs and leaping straight off northward from the front garden © Martin Cade: 

A reminder that our big Spring book sale is happening this weekend!