21st March

Whilst this morning's cold and grey start didn't really proffer much hope on the migration front, a scattering of new arrivals just about kept momentum going even if numbers of common migrants continue to fall way below par. Of particular note were Portland's earliest ever Pied Flycatcher at Verne Common and second earliest ever Yellow Wagtails at Barleycrates Lane; interestingly, one of the two Yellow Wagtails was of continental origin - a Blue-headed or something similar. Elsewhere, a new Firecrest was present in the Obs garden alongside the first Goldcrest of the spring, 7 White Wagtails pitched in at Barleycrates and a total of 4 new Black Redstarts were dotted around the island. Several large blocks of rain further to our south and west seemed to restrict both overhead passage and sea movement, with 154 Meadow Pipits, 16 Linnet, 14 Goldfinch and 8 'Alba' Wagtails the sum from the morning's vismig watch on West Cliffs, whilst just 65 Common Scoter, 18 Red-throated Divers, 3 Little Gulls, 5 Sandwich Terns and singles of Arctic and Great Skua - both also firsts for the year - passed by off the Bill; 3 Garganey were pick of  a slightly more varied sea selection off Chesil.

The current migrant happenings are peculiar to say the least: our first Goldcrests of the spring usually show up in the first days of March so to get this individual as a first for the year on the 21st of the month represents the tardiest of appearances and falls very much in line with the pitiful numbers of, for example, Wheatears and Chiffchaffs logged so far this month; contrast that with two of today's other new arrivals - the Pied Flycatcher was the earliest ever by a clear 10 days, whilst the only earlier Yellow Wagtail than today's two birds was a freakishly-prompt bird on 15th March 1975 - before today, the next earliest arrival was on 27th March 2019 © Martin Cade:

The Garganey off Chesil were popular - seawatch Garganey here do settle on the water surprisingly often but they still rarely linger as long as these birds that were twitchable for listers from many miles away © Phil Cheeseman:

Crisply marked male - and female for that matter - White Wagtails such as these birds at Barleycrates are super-smart...

...but we do still struggle with the occasional first-summer birds - this very weakly-marked individual was with the males at Barleycrates and is presumably a first-summer ?female but, save for having a slightly pearlier-grey mantle and noticeably paler flanks, it looked remarkably like an equally weaked-marked immature Pied Wagtail in an adjacent field © Martin Cade:

None of the conventional migrant moths have come our way over the last couple of nights but it was good to find a Red Sword Grass in one of the Obs garden moth-traps this morning; this used to a fabulously rare visitor here but latterly has increased in frequency to become pretty well annual if still never at all numerous - a smart moth! © Martin Cade

mucked up photos but blue headed wagtail as far as i can see, was pretty brief and even more brief an unsnapped yellow wagtail with it for a few seconds.

[image or embed]

— andylportland.bsky.social (@andylportland.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 1:11 PM

Chesil: Excuse the Garganey photos, but the were taken on a sea watch after all! They were so close on occasion, they went out of view below the beach (photo 1). Otherwise, 38 Scoter, 26 Sandwich Tern, 6 Red-throats, 12 Dunlin, 2 Brent, Peregrine @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social

[image or embed]

— Paul Harris (@paulupwey.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 1:26 P