Underbarn Walk this morning produced 2 Black-throated Diver, Sandwich Tern, Swallow, 6 Gorse Shieldbug and a Speckled Wood. @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social
— Paul Harris (@paulupwey.bsky.social) March 26, 2026 at 12:48 PM
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It was always going to be hard work detecting any migrant activity in today's battering northwesterly, but all attempts at fieldwork suggested it was genuinely a quiet day for new arrivals. On the ground, just 3 Chiffchaffs, 2 Wheatears and a new Firecrest were logged, whilst visible migration overhead included a Grey Heron at the Bill and a Merlin over Chesil Cove. At sea, a noticeable increase in Sandwich Terns included 25 heading through off the Bill, where 4 Red-throated Divers and a trickle of Manx Shearwaters were also logged.
Of all the birds we ring at Portland one of the easiest to catch is the Meadow Pipit - migrant youngsters in particular respond readily to a sound-lure and we catch several hundred each September and October; amongst these we occasionally 'control' already ringed birds so have knowledge of, for example, connections to a breeding site in mid-Wales and to several other migration stop-offs in southern England. However, once these migrants depart the country we have pretty well no knowledge through ring recoveries of where they spend the winter or return to during subsequent breeding seasons. Interestingly, we do know a lot more about our local breeding population which it seems are pretty well resident as we have plenty of subsequent recatches of locally-raised youngsters during all seasons of the year. With all this in mind we've been very excited to receive news of one of our autumn-ringed migrants being discovered earlier this week in Northumberland - it had been ringed here on 22nd September last year and the ring was read in the field on 22nd March by Chris Redfern whilst he was checking out a population of colour-ringed Rock Pipits that he studies on Low Newton beach...
Whilst not quite a wholesale change in the conditions, some much welcome hazy cloud cover saw another pulse of migrants rapidly work their way up the island today, with 75 Chiffchaffs, 10 Blackcaps, 5 Willow Warblers, 4 Black Redstarts and 3 Firecrests logged. Among the scattering of Wheatears around the Bill it was particularly pleasing to see the return of the regular singing male that holds territory there - fingers crossed he'll have more luck than last year when he looked to be paired up for a time but if there was a breeding attempt it failed. Overhead, just a trickle of Sand Martins and Swallows made up the bulk of day's visible migration, with a single Redwing also seen. The low cloud made for poor visibility out to sea, with 7 Velvet Scoters easily the best of the lot, with just 15 Red-throated Divers, 3 Manx Shearwaters and a Greylag Goose of note.
We had a nice little event a couple of mornings ago when two 'control' Chiffchaffs were trapped literally next to each other in one of the Obs garden mist-nets. We received the ringing details on these birds today that revealed one had been ringed as a juvenile - presumably close to its breeding site - two summers ago in Cheshire, whilst the other had been ringed four years ago as an autumn migrant in north Hampshire © Martin Cade:
There was lots of enjoyment to be had from today's migration happenings, with the continuing settled weather seeing plenty of birds arriving on all fronts across the island. On the ground, Wheatears were conspicuously abundant, with a likely very conservative minimum of 100 recorded around the Bill where multiple waves of birds raced through throughout the morning. Other grounded arrivals were more thinly spread: a Willow Warbler was an on-cue first of the year, with 25 Chiffchaffs, 3 Blackcaps and singles of Firecrest and Greenfinch also logged. Overhead, Meadow Pipits and Linnets continued to move through, with 193 and 45 logged respectively in a sample hour on West Cliffs, whilst other visible migrants included 30 Sand Martins, a Short-eared Owl, the year's first Ring Ouzel, 2 Siskin and a Reed Bunting. At sea, a Long-tailed Duck - a genuine Bill rarity these days - was the pick of a passage that also included the year's best Gannet total to date of 415, along with 141 Common Scoter, 9 Red-throated Diver and 7 Shelduck.
Back to the Mecca that is PBO @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social for a Trustees' meeting three days after it's 65th anniversary. Real bonus of 22 birds of 10 species ringed today with a Mega, 5m Greenfinch,(only 1 ringed in 2025) 1st Willow warbler of year, 7 Cc, 3 Blackcap, 2 Goldcrest and a Firecrest.
— Peter J Morgan (@pbo61.bsky.social) March 20, 2026 at 4:55 PM
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We don't really catch all that many Chaffinches so it was a surprise this morning that it should be one of them that accounted for our first ringing 'control' of the year. These days, the BTO is wonderfully efficient with reporting back with the ringing details of captures like this and by the end of the afternoon we'd already learnt that the bird had been ringed by our old friend Ian Dodd just across on the mainland at Littlesea, Weymouth. Ian had originally ringed the bird on 16th November last year - a timing that suggests it was perhaps a migrant arriving to spend the winter in Britain and we'll hazard a guess that it's been in the Weymouth/Portland area ever since and is just now departing back to its natal area on the continent © Martin Cade:
...and a migrant moth: a Silver Y from the Obs moth-traps last night - our first since 2 in mid-January
— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 12:35 PM
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A perfectly birdable morning revealed no evidence of migration resuming in earnest. The only passerines of note at the Bill were lingering singles of Blackcap and Firecrest. A tiny bit more passing on the sea there included 5 Red-throated Divers and 2 Manx Shearwaters. Elsewhere, the first 6 migrant Pale-bellied Brent Geese of the spring dropped in at Portland Harbour.
Some late snippets of news for yesterday, 14th: a Merlin in off the sea at the Bill, 2 Black Redstarts in the East Cliff quarries at the Bill, 2 Firecrests at Sheat Quarry and 2 Siskins over Southwell.
An unexpectedly lovely day that didn't really deliver on the migrant front. A small flurry of new arrivals at the Bill included 8 Wheatears and a Sand Martin that were certainly new, along with several Goldcrests and singles of Black Redstart, Blackcap and Firecrest that were likely or confirmed lingerers; elsewhere, 3 Blackcaps were at Sweethill and a Black Redstart at Reap Lane. Three Red-throated Divers and a single Great Northern Diver were about all that could be mustered from the sea at the Bill.
In the absence of many birds it was the perfect afternoon for a fruitless scour of Church Ope Cove/Pennsylvania Castle for Large Tortoiseshells...
Unyielding gloom again today and in the increasingly misty conditions the constituents of the day's arrivals changed, with fewer Chiffchaffs and crests but more thrushes and finches. This had been hinted at overnight when the Redwing loggings on the nocmig recorder at the Obs upped to 117 from the low single figure totals that had been the rule during the last week or so. Nine more were logged there through the morning when 23 Chaffinches, 6 Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrushes and a Brambling also passed through. Grounded arrivals were sparse, with barely more than the odd singles of Wheatear, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest at the Bill; a lingering Blackcap occasionally in song was also at the Bill, with 2 more in song at Verne Common where there was also a currently locally very noteworthy total of 7 Greenfinches.
When you see the state of some of the bedraggled small migrants pitching up on the shore at the Bill tip on a damp day like today it does make you wonder how many others got too waterlogged during their Channel crossing and didn't make it - this Chiffchaff was a lucky one © Jodie Henderson:
Today's splashes of colour in the otherwise uniform gloom at the Obs were provided by the year's first Brambling and a handful of Goldcrests © Martin Cade:
