9th February

Experience tells us that Portland very rarely comes up with a worthwhile cold weather movement unless there's substantial snow cover visible across on the mainland or, preferably, it's actually snowing on the island. Today might have had a bitter and brutally strong northeasterly but our half-a-dozen flakes of snow around dawn caused little or no avian disruption, with a Woodcock and 4 Lapwings at the Bill the only evidence of any movement away from weather events further east. Additionally, another 3 Red-throated Divers passed by off the Bill, 32 Stock Doves at Sweethill was thought to be the highest ever count there and 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 3 Shelducks and a Knot were among the waterfowl selection at Ferrybridge.