1st March

On a lovely mild, sunny day spring was announced in the form of new arrivals/visible passage on land, overhead and at sea, including a Goldcrest at Avalanche Road, 2 alba wagtails in/off and a Rook at the Bill, 42 Common Scoter, 10 Red-throated Divers and a Great Northern Diver through off the Bill and at least 7 Common Buzzards wandering widely overhead. We're beginning to lose track of the white-winged gull tally, but single Iceland Gulls at Chesil Cove and Portland Castle provided today's entertainment for the larophiles. Further interest from perhaps the most fulsome day-list thus far this year came in the form of the likes of 2 Purple Sandpipers and a Black Redstart at the Bill, a  Black Redstart at Reap Lane, 3 Slavonian Grebes off Chesil Beach and at least one of the Black Guillemots - along with seemingly dwindling numbers of divers and grebes - in Portland Harbour.
 Iceland Gull - Portland Castle, 1st March 2014 © Andrew Maynard