An increasingly unpleasantly showery and windy day after a not too bad start had allowed for plenty of coverage that revealed there had been next to no improvement in the parlous migrant situation. Three Caspian Gulls were notable arrivals, but passerine numbers really were dismal, with 5 Whinchats and the lingering Dartford Warbler the only reports of note amongst the low single figure totals of commoner species at the Bill; overhead there, a flock of 19 departing Grey Herons were quite a spectacle but no more than a handful of Swallows were logged heading out to sea. The sea was well-watched with a subliminal Sabine's Gull through off the Bill the chief reward; 101 Balearic Shearwaters, 4 Arctic Skuas, the first Great Northern Diver of the autumn and a Bar-tailed Godwit were the best of the rest. Ferrybridge was busy: the Sandwich Tern influx continued with up to 104 lingering, 13 Bar-tailed Godwits arrived and 36 Oystercatchers, 5 Sanderling, 4 Knot and 2 Little Stints were amongst the commoner waders.
A distinct autumnal coolness in the air at dawn didn't herald any change in the migrant situation, in fact without either of yesterday's scarcities in evidence it was soon brought into sharp focus just how little was going on - a fact further evidenced by several hours of blank net rounds and downbeat trudging around the Bill. Seven Wheatears, 2 Reed Warblers, a Garden Warbler, a Yellow-legged Gull and a Pied Flycatcher on the ground at the Bill really weren't the stuffof September dreams; an equally sedate overhead passage of 55 Swallows, 27 Yellow Wagtails, 14 Grey Wagtails and 16 Tree Pipits was also hugely disappointing. The sea again helped out by providing the bulk of the day's numbers, including 75 Kittiwakes, 65 Balearic Shearwaters, 20 Manx Shearwaters, 9 Arctic Skua, 9 Sandwich Terns and 9 Arctic Terns through off the Bill. An uptick to 42 Sandwich Terns was of interest at Ferrybridge, where waders included 12 Knot, 6 Sanderlings and 2 Little Stints.
In the absence of anything much else in numbers on the ground the increase in Sandwich Terns at Ferrybridge was of note...
This autumn's ratio of rare/scarce migrants to more routine fare was already something to be envied and the events of today served only to improve it, with first a Wryneck showing up at Culverwell before a Booted Warbler was discovered in the Crown Estate Field; with a back-up cast that included singles of Osprey (over Verne Common) and Marsh Harrier (over the Bill) overhead, the autumn's first Merlin at the Bill, 2 Little Stints at Ferrybridge and another 150 Balearic Shearwaters through/lingering offshore there was plenty to commend. The common migrant situation was far less positive, with variety not too bad but numbers far below what might be expected in mid-September, to the extent that visible passage of hirundines was almost non-existent and the likes of totals of just 22 Yellow Wagtails, 15 Grey Wagtails and 2 Tree Pipits overhead at the Bill were frankly pitiful for seemingly perfect conditions. With the night sky dominated by an enormous full moon a worthwhile arrival on the ground was never likely, so the scatter of 4 Reed Warblers, 2 Pied Flycatchers, 2 Spotted Flycatchers, a Yellow-legged Gull and a Grasshopper Warbler amongst not a great deal else were welcome. With the exception of the Balearic Shearwaters and some good gatherings of gulls the sea was quiet, with 2 Arctic Skuas and a Little Gull the best off the Bill.
The Booted Warbler was a nice little event: at midday we were actually closing the Crown Estate Field nets having had little reward all morning when on getting to one in a low weedy crop a small, ghostly-pale warbler flushed out from close to the net; a judicious walk through the crop saw it fly out into an adjacent hedge where the ID as a likely Booted Warbler became more obvious:
A few more hands were gathered from the Obs and before long the bird had been chivvied into the mist-net it had first been found beside. In the hand it seemed both in appearance and biometrics to conform in every way to Booted, with the possibility of Sykes's looking to be safely eliminated. On release in the Obs Quarry it showed remarkably well for a while and continued to pop up quite regularly for the arriving listers before eventually leaving the quarry and being lost:
And some of the finer details in the hand. Of esoteric interest, we weren't entirely certain what age the bird was: the presence of some prominent fault bars on some of the middle tail feathers invited hasty categorization as a youngster (although there are other possible explanations for this and, besides, the fault bars didn't extent across the whole tail) but on close examination some feathers in tracts such as the tertials, the smaller wing coverts and the tail looked to be unexpectedly heavily worn for a youngster and there was some sort of strange moult activity going on in the inner secondaries; in contrast to all this, the primaries looked to be way too fresh for it to be an adult. So, it's probably best left unaged until we've received some more informed input on this subject:
Another day of high expectations and although there were appropriate rewards they certainly weren't widely available, with many visitors leaving largely empty-handed. Well before dawn the first arrival at the Obs heard multiple Ortolan Bunting calls overhead but the bird(s) couldn't be found after daybreak; later, a flighty and furtive Hoopoe showed up off Weston Street, a Dartford Warbler was a September oddity on the Slopes, up to 4 Curlew Sandpipers joined the waders at Ferrybridge and there were visitor reports of, amongst others, an Osprey departing south at the Bill and a Sabine's Gull through on the sea there. With heavy thundery showers only a little to the west of the island at dawn conditions looked promising for a drop of migrants but only the likes of Yellow Wagtails, Wheatears and Whinchats figured at all conspicuously; warblers in particular were really thinly spread, whilst 3 White Wagtails and 2 Pied Flycatchers were as good as it got for the less-frequents. Overhead passage was fitful but did include some strong pulses of departing hirundines everywhere and a Hobby through at Ferrybridge. Balearic Shearwaters dominated on the sea, with 120 through east off the Bill during the morning, another 110 through east there in short time towards dusk and plenty of milling around by the same or others in between both off the Bill and off West Cliffs/Chesil; more than 100 departing Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 50 commic terns, 7 Sanderling, 2 Arctic Skuas and the first Red-throated Diver of the autumn
Still far too windy overnight to be able to get amongst the best of the overnight migrant moth arrivals; 3 Latticed Heath and singles of Convolvulus and Striped Hawks the pick of a low key catch at the Obs
There used to be such certainties in life: England were always contenders for a World Cup, you'd marvel at the oratory of the titans of Labour inspiring the crowd at rallies addressing global issues of the day and you could turn up at Portland in early September easterlies and see Ortolans and Tawny Pipits so readily that you hardly gave them a thought as you sought rarer fare; these days England need own goals to scrape past minnows in World Cup qualifiers, the snakes of New Labour throw pensioners in jail for protesting genocide and at Portland the Ortolans and Tawny Pipits have faded from memory to be replaced by Glossy Ibises so numerous that they're passed off as Cormorants. Today's brisk south-easterlies brought a fair degree of anticipation for those scarcities of the past but even the most common migrant species were in the shortest of supply. In terms of grounded arrivals, around 40 Wheatears, a Pied Flycatcher and a single Tree Pipit were the best of the bunch at the Bill; additionally, a four figure total of hirundines, together with 55 Yellow Wagtails, 5 Grey Wagtails and 3 Swifts, were scant vismig rewards given the conditions. The stand-out highlight of the day was the flock of 14+ Glossy Ibis that headed north just off East Cliffs at the Bill; 32 Balearic Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Skuas, an Arctic Tern and a Sooty Shearwater were the only other sightings of note from the sea there. Elsewhere, 2 Grey Phalaropes lingered at Chesil Cove and Ruff and Arctic Tern were amongst the variety at Ferrybridge.
News from John Lucas of a Scar Bank Gem caught overnight in his garden at Southwell - a quality rarity and think it's only the fourth Portland record. Photo courtesy of John.
A thoroughly enjoyable day with some much appreciated calm, sunny weather that saw migration kick back into gear once again with the land, sea and the skies overhead getting in on the action. Around the Bill, Wheatears were once again on the up, with many of them now seemingly Greenland/Iceland breeders. Other grounded migrants included 12 Blackcaps, 4 Sedge Warblers, 2 Whinchat, a Snipe and a Reed Warbler with the lingering Pied Flycatcher making a reappearance in the Obs garden after recent unsettled weather had seen it escape detection. Whilst not quite at the magnitude hoped for in early September, overhead passage was still much improved with totals of 44 Yellow Wagtails, 29 Grey Wagtails, 6 Tree Pipits, 2 Swift and a Curlew over the Bill. The sea saw the biggest returns for both quality and quantity, with impressive totals including a year peak to date of 217 Balearic Shearwaters, along with 140 Kittiwakes, 101 commic terns and 77 Manx Shearwaters; 7 Arctic Terns, 5 Arctic Skuas, 3 Whimbrel, the autumn's first 2 Wigeon and 2 Ringed Plover provided some nice variety. Away from the Bill, a Hobby was settled for a while at Ferrybridge and a Grey Phalarope lingered on at Chesil Cove.
Decent return on all fronts marking the return of benign conditions this morning: Balearic Shearwaters got past 200 for the first time this year; good flurries of migrants on the deck and overhead
Whilst today saw continued blustery conditions, there were far fewer rewards on the sea, with only 18 Balearic Shearwaters, 10 Common Scoter, 8 Manx Shearwater, 2 Arctic Skua, 1 Arctic Tern and a Grey Phalarope past the Bill. On the land, Wheatears were up slightly with 18 in the relative shelter along the East Cliffs, whilst a trickle of Swallows and Sand Martins and a couple of Grey Wagtails constituted the only perceptible movement overhead. A Glossy Ibis made a very typical all too brief appearance at Ferrybridge, with a Sunfish off the East Cliffs to round off the day's only other oddities.
After yesterday's flurry of Storm Petrels off the Bill, it seems a good time to look back on this year's ringing efforts and summarize what was an excellent year for interactions with this enigmatic seabird. In fact, 2025 marked the second best year for number of new birds ringed at 66, with 121 in 1994 the only other higher annual total. So far, 12 Portland-ringed birds have been resighted elsewhere this year, with 9 from Alderney, 2 from Skokholm and 1 from Ireland. The majority of these were birds ringed this year (with 6 from 2025, 1 from 2024, 2 from 2023, 2 from 2022 and 1 from 2019), with two birds in particular making remarkably quick turnarounds, with a 24-hour recovery to Skokholm and a 5-day recovery to Ireland, a minimum of 280 and 440 miles respectively. Rather strangely, reverse movements from these colonies are rare events here, with the two Alderney birds caught at the Bill this year only the second and third record of a Channel Isles bird from Portland.
When combined with previous years data, there have now been 93 encounters of Portland-ringed Storm Petrels away from here, representing 12.8% of all birds ringed since 1991. The location and number of recoveries per each site can be seen on the map below, with a strong bias for the south-west and Welsh headlands and islands.
We're usually the first ones to moan about constantly windy weather but the quality of the seawatching that it's precipitated has been so good that the only complaints we've heard have been from the dedicated bird-ringers who've been put out of action for the best part of a week. A raging, window-rattling southerly gale blew up through the night but with Portland not quite so afflicted by rain as had been forecast the daylight hours were suitable for seawatching pretty well all the way, even if the extremely turbulent sea made for really trickly spotting of the likes of petrels and phalaropes. In the context of the date, the day's highlight was the 2-3 very early Leach's Petrel through at Chesil Cove; Storm Petrels were well-represented, with well into double figures off the Bill and through at the Cove. Two Long-tailed Skuas were very nice off the Bill, whilst a series of Grey Phalaropes at the Cove and the Bill could easily also have totaled into double figures but, as was the situation with the petrels, it was impossible to sure of the situation with duplication/lingering. There was puzzlement regarding the lack of large shearwaters in such seemingly suitable conditions, but the routines included 98 Balearic Shearwaters, 48 Manx Shearwaters, 4 Arctic Skuas and a Sooty Shearwater; 50 Common Terns also passed through at Ferrybridge.
A productive morning at Portland Bill seeing more Balearic Shears in a morning than I ever seen (66+)! Personal totals were 2-3 Grey Phal, 2 LT Skua, Sooty Shear, 9+ Stormies and 2 Arctic Skua @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social
Not counted but c.10+ Red-veined Darters at Yeolands Quarry, Portland on 31 Aug
Most teneral/female types but one battered male
Several exuvias too.
Common darters too - and poor views of an emperor of some sort oviposting.
@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social
Plenty more wind and at least some more showery rain saw pretty well all the day's attention given to the sea. An early morning Cory's Shearwater through off the Bill ensured that for a while there was plenty of interest in proceedings, but with subsequent rewards consisting of little more than 79 Balearic Shearwaters, 6 Arctic Skuas and 2 Sooty Shearwaters attentiveness had dwindled long before midday when, completely out of the blue when most other movement had ceased, a Fea's Petrel species raced through westwards. A Grey Phalarope lingered at Chesil Cove and 2 Little Stints dropped in at Ferrybridge but there was little else of note amongst the rest of the day's sightings.
