8th November

Being cheerful souls we're not jumping on the bandwagon of collective national gloomy-weather angst, in fact if anything we're positively celebrating our vitamin D deficiency for it's come in tandem with us being awash with migrants downed under the sombre sky. Today was a slow-burner: initial indications, particularly from overhead passage, were far from encouraging but as the morning wore on the mist-nets - and, apparently, observations in and around Southwell - told the story of an arrival of Goldcrests and a variety of other migrants gathering momentum and this was to continue for the rest of day. In rarity terms the continuing Pallas's Warbler at Avalanche Road and Yellow-browed Warbler at May Bower Gardens again stole the show but the autumn's best arrival of Goldcrests was significant on such a late date; a good many of the other arrivals would have gone under the radar had so many of them not shown up in the relatively few mist-nets being operated at the Obs and the Crown Estate Field (it was still too windy for the full complement to be open) but Blackbirds, Wrens, Blackcaps, Chaffinches and Bramblings in particular all featured in decent quantity and plenty more odds and ends were encountered both there and elsewhere, including a Great White Egret downed on a garden pond at Sweethill and single Siberian Chiffchaffs there and in the Crown Estate Field. Despite precious little systematic seawatching some oddities made the list from the Bill, including 2 very unseasonable Whimbrel, singles of Pochard and Velvet Scoter, and the first returning Fulmar of the winter. Elsewhere, the Red-necked Grebe remained in Portland Harbour where a lone Common Scoter was new.

The Pallas's Warbler continued to entertain at Avalanche Road © Debby Saunders:

Two more Siberian Chiffchaffs today - at least the ninth and tenth of the week - included this one trapped in the Crown Estate Field © Martin Cade:

In Portland terms, one of the rarest birds of the day was this Pochard that shot past over East Cliffs below the Obs. It was sufficiently close in that a photo looked to be a possibility - very few have ever been photographed here so even a crappy record shot wasn't to be missed - but it was just about to go out of view and our camera was way out of reach; fortunately, Ben Sheldon had left his camera close by so we grabbed that and fired off a few frames which in the circumstances turned out to be perfectly acceptable. Sadly for Ben, he's never actually seen a Pochard at Portland although his camera's now got a little series of photographs of one captured for posterity on the memory card - sorry Ben! © Martin Cade:

Today really belonged to Goldcrests; we really need to check up on the facts and figures but it seems to us that they're getting later and later these days - surely we didn't used to get the largest arrival of the autumn as late as 8th November? © Martin Cade:

And a few of the day's other nice things - Golden Plover © Dan Houghton and Water Rail, Brambling and Reed Bunting © Martin Cade:

A busier second morning at @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social with EGI students today. The wind having dropped a little, overhead movement less obvious, but a clear influx of Goldcrests & Blackbirds with some nice extra species including Brambling and, to end the day, a fine Siberian Chiffchaff #UKBirding

[image or embed]

— Ben Sheldon (@sheldonbirds.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 9:39 PM