Like the weather, the birding was very much a tale of two halves, with a cold and damp start seeing another decent arrival of grounded migrants and some steady sea passage before the cloud lifted and any diurnal passage that had been blocked by the morning's rain could finally get going in the afternoon's unbroken sunshine. At the Bill, a total of 60 grounded Chiffchaffs contrasted with just single figure tallies of both Willow Warbler and Blackcap, but 4 Goldcrests, 2 Fieldfare, 2 Black Redstarts, a Water Rail, a White Wagtail and at least 2 of the long-staying Firecrests provided some variety there, whilst a single Common Redstart was a further addition at Southwell. Hirundine passage was conspicuously busier than of late, with the 44 Swallows, 11 House Martins and 3 Sand Martins logged in a 30 minute sample on the West Cliffs giving an idea of relative proportions involved in a movement that looked likely to have reached a four-figure total for the island as a whole. A varied selection from the sea at the Bill included 354 Common Scoter, 350 Gannets, 49 Sandwich Terns, 41 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 18 Teal, 11 Red-throated Divers, 5 Eider and singles of Arctic Skua and Puffin.
The season's first ringing control concerned a Chiffchaff first ringed at Carey, near Wareham, last September that was trapped at the Obs this morning; assuming it left the country over east Dorset soon after it was ringed last autumn then it didn't make a bad job of navigating its way back in this spring along pretty much the same track:
Always a pleasure to see at this time of year - today's Common Redstart at Southwell © Phil Cheeseman:
An arrival of Blossom Underwings last night: 4 from the one actinic trap running in the Obs garden
— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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