Pomarine Skuas and Wall Brown - Chesil Cove and Portland Bill, 5th May 2015 © Pete Saunders (Pom Skuas) and Ken Dolbear (Wall Brown)
5th May
Such is the high value to which skuas, and particularly Pomarine Skuas, have been elevated that the forecast of an unseasonable gale had brought forth a state of euphoric anticipation on the part of certain seawatchers, even if rarity- and migrant-seekers were noticeably less enthusiastic. With strong winds already well-established by dawn the highest value skua - a Long-tailed - managed to sneak through both Chesil Cove and the Bill before many watchers were even on station, but thereafter totals of 10 Great Skuas, 6 Pomarine Skuas and an Arctic Skua off Chesil Cove and 7 Great Skuas, 5 Pomarine Skuas and 3 Arctic Skuas off the Bill seemed to satisfy the gathered throng; seawatching was otherwise rather unrewarding: 2 Storm Petrels at Chesil Cove (one of which ended being blown into Portland Harbour) were a first for the year, plenty of Manx Shearwaters were off both watchpoints, but there was little more than 3 Great Northern Divers and singles of Red-throated Diver and Black-throated Diver off the Bill by way of additional quality. Although it was hard to believe many migrants had been on the move during a constantly wet and increasingly windy night there were a few new arrivals about at dawn, with a second Ring Ouzel joining the lingering individual at Coombefield and a handful of Spotted Flycatchers, Garden Warblers, Blackcaps and phylloscs in evidence in sheltered spots around the south of the island; diurnal migrants were much more conspicuous, with a steady stream of hirundines and a few Swifts arriving in off the sea once the early rain had cleared through.