Birding social media is full of tedious hyperbole but it isn't exaggerating to say that the migration happenings of the last fortnight really are without precedent at Portland - late May and early June sometimes provide the odd exceptional arrival of the likes of Spotted Flycatchers or Reed Warblers but for every day at this time of year to be producing the sort of numbers we've been logging indicates something truly strange is afoot this year. Today's heavy cloud cover and naggingly chilly northeastly at dawn dropped a bare minimum of 124 Swifts, 40 Spotted Flycatchers, 15 Reed Warblers, 5 Willow Warblers, 4 Blackcaps, 3 Whinchats, 2 Whitethroats, a Hobby, a Garden Warbler and a Chiffchaff at the Bill where we wouldn't mind betting the true totals of some of these arrivals would have been at least doubled given fuller coverage of hot-spots such as the West Cliffs. Awkward tide timings saw to it that Ferrybridge wasn't as well watched as it usually is, but 34 Ringed Plover, 13 Sanderling, 8 Dunlin, 6 Bar-tailed Godwits, 6 Turnstones, 3 Grey Plovers and 2 Redshank was a decent enough return from what coverage there was. The continuing Grey-headed Wagtail at Reap Lane attracted a steady succession of admirers but there were otherwise few reports from the middle of the island - was it watched or was the day's fall-out largely restricted to the Bill? A little bit of movement offshore included 24 Common Scoter, 5 Sandwich Terns, 2 Greenshank and a Balearic Shearwater through at the Bill.
It was a lot easier to appreciate some of the subtler features of the Grey-headed Wagtail in this morning's flatter light © Pete Saunders (top) and Simon Craft (bottom):
The birding can be really difficult at this time of year now that the trees are in full leaf. Some things like Spotted Flycatchers are a doddle...
...but others like Willow Warbler that were so straightforward in the bare branches just a few weeks ago are suddenly really hard to pin down...
...and you may as well forget about Reed Warblers - they can be in full song just a few metres away...
...but you try and get any sort of meaningful view of them!
We're wondering right now about the extent to which our unprecedented arrivals of migrants might be related to the ongoing unseasonable cold weather in Scandinavia and the Baltic States - are some of our arrivals being deflected from there?...are some of our lingerers perhaps even aware in some way of what's afoot there? In the balminess that followed this morning's chill it was noticeable that migrants presumably eventually headed in that direction weren't exactly full of the joys of Zugunruhe! © Martin Cade:
