February 2010

28th February

Although there was plenty more rain overnight the forecast stormy conditions didn't materialise and the day's bird list was pretty mundane: at the Bill 6 Purple Sandpipers and 3 Turnstones on the land, 4 Common Scoter settled offshore and a Red-throated Diver through on the sea, and in Portland Harbour several Black-necked Grebes and an Eider.

 

    

      Eider - Portland Harbour, 27th February 2010 © Pete Saunders

...and thanks to all those who got in touch yesterday to highlight our herpetological ineptitude in misidentifying the only frog in a pond full of toads.

.     27th February

After an extremely wet dawn it turned out to be another really quite nice day - the calm before the storm? Odds and ends reported around the island included singles of Red-necked Grebe, Slavonian Grebe, Black-necked Grebe and Eider in Portland Harbour, a Chiffchaff at Portland Castle, singles of Black Brant and Pale-bellied Brent Goose at Ferrybridge, 3 Common Scoter settled off the Bill and a Red-throated Diver passing through off the Bill.

 

    

      Common Frog - Portland Bill, 26th February 2010 © Martin Cade

.     26th February

A nice clear, sunny day. The only reports were from the Bill: 2 Turnstones and a Redwing on the land, 4 Common Scoter settled offshore and a single Red-throated Diver through on the sea.

 

    

   

   

    Rock Pipits - Portland Bill, 25th February 2010 © Martin Cade

...the arrival of milder weather in the last couple of days has prompted a surge in breeding activity from both Meadow and Rock Pipits, with the latter song-flighting in earnest all along the East Cliffs at the Bill this morning.

.     25th February

Something of a repeat of yesterday, albeit never quite as bright through the morning before the rain set in at lunchtime. Eleven Black-headed Gulls, a Mediterranean Gull and a Little Gull passing through off the Bill and a Redwing in the Obs garden provided the only evidence of spring passage today; 7 Common Scoter were still settled offshore there, a Red-throated Diver passed by on the sea and a Black Redstart was still at Chesil Cove.

24th February

An unexpectedly pleasant, mild and clear morning gave way to an increasingly blustery and damp afternoon. New arrivals were in short supply, but did include 2 Redwings and a Fieldfare at the Bill, whilst routine fare included a Reed Bunting at the Bill, 4 Common Scoter still settled offshore there, a single Red-throated Diver through on the sea and 25 Mediterranean Gulls and singles of Black Brant and Pale-bellied Brent Goose at Ferrybridge.

23rd February

A miserable wet and windy day with the birding as grim as the weather. The only reports were of a Blackcap at Southwell, 6 Pheasants at the Bill and 4 Common Scoter settled off the Bill

 

    

   

    Lapwing and Lesser Black-backed Gull - Portland Bill, 22nd February 2010 © Martin Cade

.     22nd February

Some miserable conditions this morning - a cold north-easterly and drizzly outbreaks - dropped a few incoming migrants. There was nothing in quantity but at the Bill, where most things headed straight through into the wind, variety included 9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 7 Lapwings, 3 Redwings, a Black-headed Gull, a Mistle Thrush and a Fieldfare; a total of 38 Rock Pipits was also higher than any previous count this winter so perhaps included a few new arrivals. The only other report from there was of 6 Common Scoter still offshore.  

Late news for Saturday (20th): 15 Black-necked Grebes and a Black-throated Diver were in Portland Harbour and 2 Red-necked Grebes passed by off the Bill.

21st February

Damper today and still fairly quiet. The few reports received included 4 Red-throated Divers through off the Bill, 8 Purple Sandpipers, 4 Turnstones, a Knot and a Black Redstart at the Bill and singles of Black Redstart, Blackcap and Firecrest at Pennsylvania Castle.

20th February

Little change on the bird front today. Six Purple Sandpipers, a Water Rail and a Knot were still at the Bill, 5 Common Scoter were still settled offshore there and 5 Red-throated Divers passed through on the sea. Elsewhere there were 2 Redwings and a Blackcap at Southwell and 8 Black-necked Grebes and 2 Shelduck in Portland Harbour.

 

    

   

    yesterday's likely Siberian Chiffchaff - Southwell, 18th February 2010 © John Lucas

...this may well be a Siberian Chiffchaff but without a recording of the call (it hasn't yet been heard to call at all) it's still in the maybe category. Also from yesterday another photo of the Ferrybridge Black Brant (© Pete Saunders):

   

            19th February

Another fair day although feeling quite chilly in the north-westerly breeze. Most of the reports came from the Bill where there were 6 Purple Sandpipers, 6 Long-tailed Tits, 2 Dunlin, a Golden Plover and a Knot on the land, 7 Common Scoter settled offshore and 6 Red-throated Divers through on the sea. Elsewhere, a party of 6 Long-tailed Tits at Southwell were probably the group seen earlier at the Bill and a Black Redstart was at Church Ope Cove, 

Late news for yesterday: the likely Siberian Chiffchaff was again at Southwell and the Black Brant was again at Ferrybridge.

 

    

    Black-headed Gull - Portland Bill, 18th February 2010 © Martin Cade

...and also thanks to John Connolly for a couple of record shots of a Knot - a very good mid-winter record at the Bill - seen by the Taunton RSPB group on the shore along East Cliffs last Sunday (14th February):

        

    

18th February

Occasional showers but otherwise not too bad a day. Bird news was restricted to a rather paltry 4 Purple Sandpipers, 3 Turnstones and a Reed Bunting at the Bill, 4 Common Scoter and 2 Black-headed Gulls through on the sea there and a Blackcap at Southwell.

Late news for recent days: yesterday, 2 Chiffchaffs were at Southwell and 2 Black Redstarts were at East Weare and last Sunday a Knot was at the Bill.

A note for bookshop visitors: during February the shop will be open as usual on Saturdays and Sundays but will be closed on Wednesdays.

 

    

   

   

Black Brant and Mediterranean Gulls - Ferrybridge, 17th February 2010 © Martin Cade

    

17th February

A much nicer day than forecast although relatively uneventful on the bird front. Another 14 Red-throated Divers passed through off the Bill, a Blackcap visited a garden at Southwell and 100 Mediterranean Gulls, a Black Brant, a Pale-bellied Brent Goose and a Lapwing were at Ferrybridge.

A note for bookshop visitors: during February the shop will be open as usual on Saturdays and Sundays but will be closed on Wednesdays.

 

    

   

   

Pheasant dicing with death on the Bill Road and distant Bottle-nosed Dolphins - Portland Bill, 16th February 2010 © Martin Cade

    

16th February

Quite a downturn in the weather today, with overcast skies and spells of rain or drizzle throughout. The only reports were of 280 Brent Geese and 4 Bar-tailed Godwits at Ferrybridge, 30 Mediterranean Gulls and 6 Common Scoter lingering off the Bill, 5 Red-throated Divers through on the sea at the Bill, single Redwings at the Bill and Southwell and a grey 'non-British' Chiffchaff at Southwell.

A party of about 10 Bottle-nosed Dolphins were off the Bill for a while during the afternoon.

 

    

   

one of yesterday's Long-tailed Tits and today's Western Conifer Seed Bug - Portland Bill, 14th/15th February 2010 © Martin Cade

...this is our first record of a seed bug outside the period September to November (when perhaps most have been primary immigrants?)

    

15th February

Still and overcast with the odd spits and spots of rain from time to time. New arrivals included a Water Rail in the Obs garden and a couple more Long-tailed Tits joining the 4 already present in the Obs/Hut Fields area, but otherwise it was more of the same as in recent days: 8 Purple Sandpipers and 3 Turnstones at the Bill, 6 Red-throated Divers passing through off the Bill, 5 Red-throated Divers through off Chesil and 5 Black-necked Grebes and a Great Northern Diver in Portland Harbour.

A single dolphin sp. headed west off the Bill during the morning and a Western Conifer Seed Bug was found in the Obs garden.

 

    

    Reed Bunting - Portland Bill, 9th February 2010 © Martin Cade

...we certainly wouldn't be so presumptuous as to say we know anything much about ageing buntings as they're well-known for being troublesome and we don't catch nearly enough of them. The only one that does come our way at all regularly is Reed Bunting and last week we netted the slightly peculiar specimen shown above and in the two photographs below:

    

   

   

In common with several other buntings, most first year Reed Bunting renew all their greater coverts in the post-juvenile moult so it's usually a lost cause looking for moult limits in that feather tract. Fortunately, a large proportion don't seem to do anything with their tails (the present writer, until catching the bird above, had never actually seen anything other than an obvious first year tail on a bird trapped at Portland so it would seem adults are genuinely rare here) so checking feather shape there is usually a give-away. Here's a typical pointed and worn first year tail from earlier this winter:

   

Going back to our earlier bird, the broad, very black feathers with rounded tips were certainly adult pattern (although, of course, a first year that had renewed these feathers would also show this pattern). What rather threw us was the appearance of the greater coverts: both age classes ought to show uniformity here but our bird showed a conspicuous colour discontinuity between the buffy-rimmed central feathers and the rufous-rimmed inner and outer feathers. Checking elsewhere we could see that the iris was very dark, rich brown (a first year perhaps ought to have a paler, greyish iris) and there were no obvious moult limits either within the tertials or between the tertials and the secondaries (on a first year the secondaries would be older, juvenile feathers that ought to look a little paler and less broad-tipped) so the most likely explanation seems to be that the bird was an adult with an unexplained colour discontinuity within the greater coverts. Just for the sake of completeness, whilst trawling through a few photographs to use with these notes we did come across one showing a nice example of a first year (an October bird) with a moult limit within the tertials that would be perfectly visible on a good field view. As explained above, field ageing without a good view of the tail would usually be very difficult (and even then the presence of rounded tail feathers wouldn't prove that a bird was an adult) but the presence of a moult limit within the tertials (according to the literature more than half of first years show this feature) would certainly prove that a bird was a first year:

    

And here's a different individual (a September bird so the feathers are not so worn) showing the same feature in the hand; the longest tertial, being a retained juvenile feather, contrasts quite strongly with the rest of the tertials and is much the same colour as the old juvenile secondaries:

   

additional photos © Martin Cade

 

14th February

A day of very quiet weather with just the lightest north-easterly breeze. The day's highlight was a record count (presumably a Dorset record as well?) during the morning of 260 Mediterranean Gulls at Ferrybridge; at least another 62 were off the Bill around the same time. Further reports included 6 Redwings, 4 Long-tailed Tits, a Fieldfare and a Reed Bunting at the Bill, 4 Red-throated Divers through on the sea there and 7 Black-necked Grebes at Ferrybridge.

13th February

More of the same weather-wise and bird-wise. A Great Skua was again off the Bill for a while during the morning, where 13 Red-throated Divers also passed by and 7 Common Scoter were still lingering. Elsewhere there were 196 Mediterranean Gulls, 23 Curlew, 6 Pale-bellied Brent Geese and 4 Bar-tailed Godwits at Ferrybridge and 9 Black-necked Grebes and a Black-throated Diver in Portland Harbour.

 

    

    Red-breasted Merganser - Ferrybridge, 10th February 2010 © Pete Saunders

    

12th February

Overcast and, in an easing wind, feeling a little bit milder today. A Great Skua that lingered for a while off the Bill was the pick of the day's sightings; 13 Red-throated Divers also passed by there, 7 Common Scoter and a few Mediterranean Gulls were offshore and 2 Redwings, 2 Fieldfares and a Snipe were logged on the land. The only other news was of a Firecrest at Easton Square.

 

    

   

Roe Deer - Portland Bill, 11th February 2010 © Martin Cade

...Bambi hasn't been endearing himself to us just lately as he's been getting into the copse we're trying to establish in Helen's Fields and munching his way through the tender saplings!

Also some more Quail news: one correspondent at Southwell has been in touch to report that apparently Quail(s), together with Pheasants and Grey Partridges, have indeed been released at the Bill in recent months; we weren't really aware until having a trawl on the web that Common and well as Japanese Quails are routinely kept for the commercial egg trade and for sale as pets, and we don't know which species is supposed to have been released here. With regard to the specific identification, Nial Moores reports from east Asia that his experience is that Japanese Quail shows a more conspicuous pale trailing edge to the secondaries than shown by our bird (he also notes that he has recently seen and photographed a singing male Japanese Quail that had almost no/no rufous in its head pattern, suggesting that many field guides are not representing the full range of plumage variation); additionally, Nial reports that the typical flight call of japonica sounds fairly harsh (John Lucas has heard the Portland bird several times as it's taken flight and he notes the call to have a soft, drawn-out quality).

    

11th February

The continuing freezing weather, particularly that on the near-Continent, prompted some more cold weather movement today. At the Bill a total of 44 Fieldfare, a Golden Plover and a Redwing arrived in off the sea from the south, a Kestrel left in the opposite direction and another 35 Fieldfares, 5 Redwings and 2 Snipe, together with 50 Linnets, 30 Song Thrushes, the Quail and a Reed Bunting, were dotted about on the land; another 11 Redwings and a Snipe were at Reap Lane. Seawatching at the Bill produced the usual 8 Common Scoter settled offshore and 2 Red-throated Divers and a Great Northern Diver passing by. 

Late news for yesterday: 74 Fieldfares and 3 Redwings headed north over Southwell late in the afternoon.

 

    

   

   

Quail - Portland Bill, 10th February 2010 © Martin Cade

...rubbish photos but you can just about make out it's a quail. This bird has presumably been present since 7th January when a likely quail was flushed in the same area; following three more sightings in the last fortnight, a concerted flush through the area today produced this one flight view. There's no reason to suppose it isn't a Common Quail but in the light of Portland's recent run of dodgy gamebirds - all of which have presumably been released here - we wonder if it's really possible to rule out a released/escaped Japanese Quail on this sort of view.

    

10th February

Remaining cold, with the Obs garden ponds iced over at dawn and one or two brief snow/freezing rain showers during the afternoon. There were two unexpected goodies at the Bill today: 2 Barnacle Geese heading west off the Bill and a Quail flushed in Top Fields. The only other reports were of 7 Black-necked Grebes in Portland Harbour, a single Red-throated Diver through off the Bill and 2 Grey Partridges and a Redwing at the Bill.

 

    

Raven - Portland Bill, 9th February 2010 © Martin Cade

...and another blast from the past. Our impromptu appeal a couple of days ago for archive photos got a few folk digging around in boxes of old prints and among the finds were this one from Gavin Haig of the Blacknor Eastern Black-eared Wheatear on 28th May 1985: 

   

Although we did already have other images of this bird it was good to get something different and, when we work out a way of bending the laws of physics so we can tap into a parallel life that might give us a bit of spare time, we might just get round to updating our woefully out of date illustrated Portland Bird List elsewhere on the site with this and the many other images we've come by in recent years.

    

9th February

Chilly but clear and dry again today. A slightly longer list today included 3 Mistle Thrushes, 2 Reed Buntings, a Golden Plover and a Woodcock at the Bill, 3 Brent Geese, a Red-throated Diver and a Great Northern Diver through on the sea at the Bill, a Redwing at Southwell, 3 Redwings at Reap Lane and a Black Redstart at Weston.

 

    

   

    Robin and Blue Tit - Portland Bill, 8th February 2010 © Martin Cade

    

8th February

Feeling a bit chillier today in a freshening north-easterly breeze but, for the most part, still mainly clear and bright. Oddments on the bird front at the Bill included 2 Lapwings and a Carrion Crow arriving in off the sea, 8 Common Scoter still settled offshore and 15 Song Thrushes dotted about on the land.

 

    

    One for the archives: Black Guillemot - Portland Harbour, winter 1986/87 © Ken Parker

...we didn't think anyone had ever photographed a Portland Black Guillemot but recently Ken Parker came across this long-forgotten image of the bird that spent more than four months in the harbour during the winter of 1986/87. We're always keen on images like this for our archives so if anyone has any ancient prints/transparencies that might be of interest do please let us know.

    

7th February

Another day of very quiet weather. All the reports were from the Bill where 21 Red-throated Divers and a Brent Goose passed by on the sea, 4 Common Scoter were settled offshore and 3 Redwings and a Golden Plover were on the land.

6th February

Relatively poor reward on what was another really quite nice day today. Odds and ends making the day list at the Bill included 6 Purple Sandpipers, 4 Turnstones, a Fieldfare and a Redwing on the land, 8 Common Scoter settled offshore and 2 Red-throated Divers through on the sea. Elsewhere there were 8 Black-necked Grebes, 2 Slavonian Grebes, a Great Northern Diver and a Black-throated Diver in Portland Harbour and 6 Common Scoter, 2 Red-throated Divers and a Slavonian Grebe off Chesil Beach.

Late news for yesterday: a Red Admiral - the first butterfly seen this year - was on the wing at Southwell.

 

    

   

     Firecrest and Long-tailed Tit - Pennsylvania Castle, 5th February 2010 © Martin Cade

    

5th February

The mildest and most pleasant day of the year so far. More typical fare at the Bill included 2 Grey Partridges and a Reed Bunting on the land and 11 Black-headed Gulls, 10 Common Scoter and 4 Red-throated Divers through on the sea. Elsewhere there were 3 Redwings at Southwell and 12 Long-tailed Tits, a Grey Wagtail and a Firecrest at Pennsylvania Castle.

4th February

With most birders staying indoors on a damp, dreary morning the only reports were of 2 Redwings at Southwell, a Mistle Thrush at the Bill, 9 Common Scoter and a Red-throated Diver through on the sea at the Bill and a Pale-bellied Brent Goose at Ferrybridge.

3rd February

Mild and not nearly as wet as the forecast suggested it could have been today. Minor surprises at the Bill included 7 Pheasants (the highest count for a long time), 2 Golden Plovers and a Mistle Thrush, together with a more routine 5 Purple Sandpipers, a Water Rail and a Redwing on the land, 21 Common Scoter settled offshore and 5 Red-throated Divers and a Black-throated Diver through on the sea. Elsewhere there were 7 Black-necked Grebes, a Great Northern Diver and a Tufted Duck in Portland Harbour.

 

    

   

   

    Shag and Razorbills - Portland Bill, 2nd February 2010 © Martin Cade

    

2nd February

A very different day to the last few with milder, breezy and dreary conditions having rolled in overnight. There wasn't much to report on the bird front with the only news from the Bill being of 6 Purple Sandpipers and 2 Redwings on the land, at least 11 Common Scoter settled offshore and singles of Red-throated Diver and Red-necked Grebe passing through on the sea.

 

    

    Mute Swans - Portland Bill, 1st February 2010 © Pete Saunders

    

1st February

Another day of unbroken sunshine and a chilly breeze. The only reports were of a Purple Sandpiper and a Black Redstart at the Bill, at least 50 Mediterranean Gulls lingering off the Bill, 3 Red-throated Divers through on the sea there and 315 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 100 Mediterranean Gulls, 2 Mute Swans and 2 Pale-bellied Brent Geese at Ferrybridge.