A Vagrant Emperor dragonfly was on the wing at Tout Quarry.
We've said it before but if ever there's a migrant that's undercounted at Portland it's the Blackcap. Today was one of those days when you knew from odd calls or subliminal glimpses that there were one or two in a particular Blackthorn hedge but when you waited beside a gap for them to pass through and reveal themselves for just a little longer there were actually half a dozen or more there:
Pied Flycatchers have given the Bill area a wide berth thus far this spring so this nice male at Culverwell was appreciated:
Our freak of nature of the day was this leucistic Meadow Pipit - in flight the white tertials and inner wing were really striking and conveyed something of the look of a female Snow Bunting to it:
We don't usually have trouble with fly-by Serins as the twinkling call is so characteristic. However, this bird that flew past at the Obs during the morning was calling so seemingly oddly that there was a reluctance to claim it as completely certain until the recording had been reviewed - from this it sounds rather like a tiny snatch of song was being used as a flight call...
...and we suspect this individual was probably the bird that later in the day turned up - along with a female in tow - in the Upper Strips. Here the male sung more fully in flight but, at least when we popped up to see them, they were only showing at very long range in poor conditions © Martin Cade:
