18th October

Knowing that yesterday's Great Grey Shrike had gone to ground at dusk (and with a band of rain sitting in the Channel), it seemed likely that the bird had gone to roost locally. This prediction was proved correct as the gloomy dawn was brightened when the bird was trapped in the Obs garden. The nets continued to produce through the morning as another eastern type Lesser Whitethroat emerged in the Crown Field and was trapped shortly afterwards. The final highlight in the nets came when one of the three Dartford Warblers was trapped. Away from the nets, today saw the first real influx of Goldcrests with over 70 recorded in the Obs area, bringing with them two Firecrests and a single Yellow-browed Warbler  Today also saw the first significant arrival of Black Redstarts with a minimum of eight birds around the Bill, as well as potentially the last Redstart of the year in the Obs garden. Ring Ouzels put in another good display with the West Weares group up to six, and two in Top Fields. The now usual supposrting cast of Chaffinches, Redwings and Song Thrushes also included a single figure totals of Redpoll and Brambling. A strong westbound movement of nearly 1000 auks provided the main interest on the sea.

Maybe not all that surprisingly bearing in mind the tally of island records is only just into double figures, today's Great Grey Shrike was the first trapped and ringed here © Martin Cade (top) and Joe Stockwell:


Always a wee bit overshadowed by the ever-increasing Yellow-browed Warblers, Siberian Lesser Whitethroat has lately overtaken Pallas's Warbler to become the second most frequent eastern rarity at Portland - today's bird was a new arrival in the Crown Estate Field © Martin Cade:


After a lean season last autumn this year's seen a resurgence in Dartford Warbler numbers © Martin Cade:

At least two of the newly arrived Black Redstarts were stonking males © Joe Stockwell (top) and Erin Taylor (bottom):