It was perhaps too much to have hoped for a repeat of yesterday's events and a subtle shift in overall conditions - with an anticyclone settling right over the UK - resulted in unhelpful and none too subtle changes on the ground: the sky remained largely cloudless but a blasting and at times unpleasantly chilly easterly had set in overnight and put the block on nocturnal passage. Numbers on the ground were reduced in most cases to little more than a handful, although morsels of interest did include 2 Common Sandpipers at Chesil Cove, a Blue-headed Wagtail at Reap Lane, a White Wagtail at the Bill and single Ring Ouzels at the Bill and Barleycrates Lane. Diurnal passage was not so affected: hirundines and finches were again arriving in quantity, whilst quality included a Hen Harrier in/off at Chesil Cove and singles of Merlin and Hobby through at the Bill. The sea came up with a fair bit of interest although numbers were much lower than might have been hoped given the wind direction: the likes of Common Scoter, Whimbrel and Sandwich Tern were all represented in low-ish quantities, whilst variety included the first Pomarine Skua of the spring though off Chesil, and 5 Red-throated Divers, 3 Arctic Terns, 2 Tufted Ducks, 2 Arctic Skuas and a Great Northern Diver through off the Bill. Single Iceland Gulls remained at the Bill and Ferrybridge.
Pied Wagtail, Redstart and Whimbrel - Portland Bill, 15th April 2014 © Martin Cade (Pied Wagtail) and Joe Stockwell Yet another birding blog (Redstart & Whimbrel)
...also, thanks to Richard Newton for a recording of one of yesterday's Grasshopper Warblers singing at the Bill:
