21st January

Portland Bill: Purple Sandpiper 12, Red-throated Diver 8, Pintail 5; also at least 7 Bottle-nosed Dolphins.
Pennsylvania Castle area: Firecrest 4, Chiffchaff 1.
Portland Harbour: Eider 2.
Ferrybridge: Dunlin 72, Egyptian Goose 22, Ringed Plover 19, Shelduck 4.

We shouldn't really be making a fuss about Egyptian Geese since they fall into that dodgy introduction category alongside Pheasants, Large Blues and Beavers but as there isn't much indigenous wildlife to report at the moment we can trumpet a new Portland record total: this morning's flock of 22 over Ferrybridge break one of the longer-standing island records of 10 at the same place on 10th July 1978. The 1978 record was rather baffling since at that time Egyptian Goose wasn't really established anywhere near Dorset (in fact it was the first county record in the modern era) but latterly they've spread into the county and we guess that today's birds strayed from somewhere like Warmwell or the Avon Valley © Pete Saunders: