IN FOCUS OPTICS Optics day this Sunday 13th April @PortlandBirdObs @DorsetBirdClub 07307698798 @DorsetBirdClub @opticronuk @SwarovskiOptik @ZEISSBirding @hawkeoptics Vortex... hoping for some good migration pic.twitter.com/bbGZMW27N2
— IN FOCUS SOUTH WEST (@MortimerKe93304) April 10, 2025
We're sure migration has plenty of momentum in the ongoing extremely fair weather but the fact remains that we're not actually tapping into too much of that momentum as a lot of the birds presumably overfly us at night. Today had its moments, not least when the second Red-rumped Swallow of the spring shot through at High Angle Battery, a Hooded Crow pitched in on top of the Bill lighthouse after arriving in off the sea and a Hoopoe made a subliminal pass over the Southwell Business Park, but a very samey selection and quantity of grounded arrivals to every other day this week didn't really inspire. A scatter of 4 Ring Ouzels and a new Firecrest were nice and the other usual suspects included a Whinchat and a few Common and Black Redstarts, but it was left to Wheatear, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler to make up the overwhelming bulk of what numbers there were on the ground. Diurnal passage remained strangely subdued, with the sudden appearance of a flock of 100 Sand Martins on West Cliffs one of the few noteworthy events overhead. The sea tried its hardest to overcome the shortfall in numbers but was also left wanting, with just 29 Sandwich Terns, 28 Red-throated Divers, 19 Whimbrel and singles of Balearic Shearwater (a very early first of the 'summer'), Greylag Goose, Red-breasted Merganser and Arctic Skua through off the Bill and 17 more Whimbrel over Chesil.
When viewed from afar on the Obs patio the Hooded Crow was testing to the limit the resolving capabilities of our kiddie camera kit © Martin Cade:
2 of the stunning Wheatears on the footpath at Barleycrates this morning
— Debra Saunders (@debbyseamist.bsky.social) April 11, 2025 at 8:39 PM
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