A day that looked to be fizzling out largely uneventfully sprung to life quite out of the blue when visiting birders tapped into a rich vein of sea movement that saw amongst others 3 Leach's Petrels, a Storm Petrel and a Grey Phalarope pass through off the Bill in quick time either side of midday. Earlier, the principal interest from the sea concerned the lingering Arctic Tern, whilst later 2 Balearic Shearwaters, a Great Skua and a Little Gull passed through; a steady day-long westbound passage of Lesser Black-backed Gulls - totalling at least 90 - was also of note. Once an early shower had cleared through some overhead passage developed at the Bill that included 575 Starlings arriving from the south and 390 Goldfinches leaving in the opposite direction; a Merlin was again in attendance and a Short-eared Owl was also overhead. Elsewhere, another Merlin was at Broadcroft, the Long-tailed Duck remained at Ferrybridge and a Black Redstart was at Chiswell.
Always a exciting thing to see during November: the majority of our late autumn Starling movements involve flocks arriving in from the south having presumably left northern France soon after dawn; invariably the flocks are a fair size and are at barely more than wave-top height over the sea - this is one of today's flocks of 200 birds that flew straight in towards the Obs, shot right past us at a rate of knots and are likely now tucked up for the night on the Somerset Levels © Martin Cade:
Red-headed Chestnut and White-speck from a small catch of migrants moths at the Obs last night pic.twitter.com/Qmq37GSNXU
— Portland Bird Observatory (@PortlandBirdObs) November 9, 2023
