This morning proved similar to to the beginning of the week with moderate westerlies and an overcast sky.
Passerine movement was once again pretty quiet with both Willow an Sedge Warbler in small numbers.
Grey Wagtail and Sand Martin were the only other movers of note.
The excitement once again fell to a number of Cory's Shearwaters. Counts of four or five depending on where you were standing, came into the obs throughout the morning and a couple gave really close in views. Interestingly the first record for Dorset involved three flying west at the Bill on the 19th April 1965. Manx Shearwater and Balearic Shearwater numbers were relatively low as most birds appeared to head directly south when leaving Lyme Bay.
A juvenile Merlin was relocated in the Crown Estate Field after initially being spotted flying up the side of the garden. Earlier in the week, one of our trustees, Andy Davidson was pretty sure that he had seen one shoot through the garden but this seemed an extremely early record. Most years the first Merlins are recorded in September, very occasionally in late August.
Merlin Mark Cutts
