It seems from national reports that there's some pretty early migrant activity afoot at the moment and Portland got in on the act today with its first Wheatear of the spring that showed up on East Cliffs at the Bill It really is still a bit too early in the season to have expected much more than that but a 'pollened' Chiffchaff, an overflying Siskin, a Carrion Crow in/off and the first Greenfinch of the year provided further morsels of interest at the Bill; additionally, another 208 Redwings calls were logged overnight by the nocmic recorder at the Obs. A few of the wintering regulars putting in appearances at the Bill included the Firecrest and Black Redstart, whilst both the Firecrest and the Great Spotted Woodpecker remained at Pennsylvania Castle. The only reports from the sea there were of 11 more passing Red-throated Divers.
The first Painted Lady of the year was on the wing at Wakeham.
We don't need an excuse to gross out on the year's first Wheatear, particularly when it was as early as this one - Portland's only earlier record is of one at the Bill on 22nd February 1998 © David Betteridge (top two) and Phil Cheeseman (bottom):
Skylark song was a constant accompaniment under today's sunny sky and closer inspection of their activities revealed plenty of territorial argy-bargy © Roy Norris:
There might be newcomers arriving but there are still plenty of winterers about that yesterday included 2 Kingfishers still on the harbour shore © Pete Saunders:
Barn Owls continue to be reported throughout the island and last week saw the unfortunate discovery of the remains of one at the Bill that looked as though it had fallen victim to an avian predator. The bird was ringed and today we discovered, rather astonishingly, that it had been ringed as a nestling near Andover, north Hampshire, in June 2023. Having now had recoveries at Portland of birds that had travelled more than 40 kms from Devon and 100 kms from Hampshire to get here (both mapped below) we're certainly having to reassess our belief that British Barn Owls are largely sedentary and that the birds we see around the island are all 'just' locals.
