After the relative wealth of oddities over the last couple of days today was quieter, with a fly-through Turtle Dove at the Bill the best on offer. In the continuing warmth and sunshine not much was expected in the common migrant line and 12 Wheatears, 7 Yellow Wagtails, 5 Willow Warblers, 2 each of Redstart and Whinchat, and singles of Sedge Warbler and Garden Warbler constituted the suitably lean return from the Bill. The sea provided more in the way of numbers, with 500 Manx Shearwaters, 153 commic terns and singles of Pomarine and Arctic Skuas through off the Bill.
For entertainment value and dazzling colour the bird of the day was this Alexandrine Parakeet that pitched up during the morning in the Obs garden having earlier been spotted flying towards the island from Wyke Regis; later it returned to the mainland where it was seen over RSPB Radipole. Having been assumed on the initial flying views to be a Ring-necked Parakeet, the bird's correct identity was realised once it landed; in fact, if we didn't positively avoid the Home Counties we might have remembered from frequent familiarity that even on a brief flight view a Ring-necked Parakeet would look a whole lot smaller than this bird...
