Dawn from CEField at dawn with NW wind later provided majority of birds ringed at PBO @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social today. 82 of 13 species incl.Snipe only 17th ever and 2nd this century,2 Sedge W & 5 Stonechat with 24 Meadow P, 11 CC, 17 B'cap being again the predominant species. Still awaiting YBW
— Peter J Morgan (@pbo61.bsky.social) October 1, 2024 at 8:23 PM
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1st October
Quite why there wasn't a Yellow-browed Warbler on the island today rather defied belief - the trees further up-island are still far too leafy and hard to work but we're not deaf - but that didn't deflect from it being a decent enough day for routine migration. Chiffchaffs were everywhere in good quantity, with evidence from the mist-nets suggesting Blackcaps were probably equally numerous if mostly audible rather than visible for the fieldworkers; other grounded arrivals weren't really a feature although good-sized groups of Stonechats and the like had aggregated in places, whilst oddities included 12 Bar-tailed Godwits dropping in at the Bill. Overhead passage was strong for a while after dawn but fizzled out quite quickly, with a sample count on West Cliffs coming up with 1535 Meadow Pipits, 510 Linnets, 175 Skylarks and lower totals of a good variety of other expected fare; a lone Cattle Egret also passed over at the Bill. In the fresh offshore breeze the sea offered limited rewards: Kittiwakes and auks were both got beyond 150 but 7 Balearic Shearwaters and 4 Arctic Skuas provided the only quality.
