With the breeze having shifted into the northeast and a stubbornly lingering veil of heavy cloud overhead there was some expectation of a flourish of late passage today that for the most part proved to be no more than wishful thinking, even if two Pallas's Warblers that turned up in a private garden at Weston during the afternoon were more than adequate compensation. Routine migrant arrivals were conspicuously few, consisting of little more than a tardy Swallow and a handful of thrushes and finches; the Rosy Starling lingered on, as did the Merlin at the Bill and the odd Black Redstart here and there. A Velvet Scoter, 2 each of Wigeon and Pintail and singles of Red-throated and Black-throated Divers passed through off the Bill, the Eider were still settled offshore there, 8 Pale-bellied Brent Geese were at Ferrybridge and 2 Black Swans joined the customary selection of divers and grebes in Portland Harbour where the white-winged gull also showed again but remained for too distant for definitive identification.
One of the Pallas's Warblers at Weston - always great birds and even better they're in your own back garden © Duncan Walbridge:
