6th January

A milder, drabber and eventually drizzly day with a minor flourish of sightings, amongst which 4 Wigeon over Ferrybridge and 2 Shelducks and a Great Skua past the Bill were all additions to the year list; a Siberian Chiffchaff at Barleycrates Lane was also new even if it seems most likely to be December's Avalanche bird setting up home somewhere else (we keep thinking that one of these days the Hume's Warbler will pop up again somewhere else but we haven't been able to find it so far). A Bar-tailed Godwit through off the Bill was an odd sighting for this time of year but the rest of the day's tally was pretty routine: 24 Common Scoter and 15 Red-throated Divers through off the Bill, 10 Purple Sandpipers, a Little Egret, a Water Rail and a Black Redstart settled at the Bill, a Chiffchaff at Southwell (one of 4 different birds there in the last three weeks), 25 Redwings at Avalanche, single Black Redstarts (or perhaps more likely the same individual - a male in each case) at Reap Lane and Barleycrates Lane, 3 Eider in Portland Harbour and 122 Brent Geese at Ferrybridge.

The Portland Harbour Eiders © Pete Saunders: