28th March

The morning's mix of bright spells punctuated by heavy showers arriving in from the south-east wasn't that dissimilar to yesterday's conditions but there were far fewer migrants both on the ground and overhead. Wheatear and Chiffchaff again dominated on the ground, although topped just 40 and 20 respectively at the Bill; a lone Black Redstart was the only very minor oddity there. In contrast, the sea was a good deal more productive than it had been yesterday: Chesil Cove came up with a good movement of 240 Black-headed Gulls, together with 3 Canada Geese, 3 Sandwich Terns, a Curlew and the Iceland Gull, whilst 2 Red-throated Divers and singles of Great Northern Diver, Manx Shearwater, Grey Plover, Arctic Skua, Little Gull and Iceland Gull passed through off the Bill.
Just a reminder that the next In Focus field event at the Obs takes place between 10am and 4pm tomorrow, Saturday 29th March.


Iceland Gull - Portland Bill, 28th March 2014 © Joe Stockwell Yet another birding blog