The Black Guillemot was way too far away for anything other than an attempt at phone-scoping © Martin Cade:
17th December
Quiet conditions for the second successive day were both a novelty and very welcome after so many weeks of turbulence. The millpond waters of Portland Harbour invited scrutiny and returned double figure totals of Great Northern Diver and Black-necked Grebe along with the Black Guillemot and 2 each of Black-throated Diver, Slavonian Grebe and Eider; noticeably sparse were Red-breasted Mergansers - do they all disappear up the Fleet to escape from the water sports activities these days? A Sanderling on the harbour shore was a decent mid-winter bird and 6 Pale-bellied Brent Geese were again at Ferrybridge. Three Red-throated and a Great Northern Diver passed by off the Bill where 5 Purple Sandpipers were on the shore and a Great Spotted Woodpecker showed up at the Obs; elsewhere there were 2 Firecrests, a Blackcap and the eastern Lesser Whitethroat at Wakeham/Pennsylvania Castle, singles of Siberian Chiffchaff and Chiffchaff at Blacknor and Chiffchaff at Portland Hospital.
