This evening's Little Ringed Plovers at Ferrybridge © Martin Cade:
5th April
Perhaps we've reached the point in spring where birds are on the move regardless, as today's hardly ideal conditions of blasting wind and crystal-clear sky heralded yet another decent arrival both on land and overhead. A good fair-weather arrival on the ground saw a constant throughput of migrants across the Bill that by its nature wasn't at all easy to quantify but included likely very conservative guesstimates of 200 Chiffchaffs, 50 Wheatears, 50 Willow Warblers and 15 Redstarts, with Blackcaps well represented and 3 Redwings and a White Wagtail amongst the padders. Elsewhere, the spring's first Whinchat was at Reap Lane, with 8 Redstarts, 5 Yellow Wagtails and a Black Redstart also scattered around the middle and 2 Little Ringed Plovers and the season's first 4 Little Terns at Ferrybridge. A Chough in/off over Chesil - only the sixth record for Portland - was a fine highlight from the day's overhead passage that saw another steady arrival of hirundines, Meadow Pipits and finches during the first few hours of the morning before things tailed off prematurely after midday; the passage was poorly covered but odd sample counts including 200 Sand Martins in two hours on West Cliffs gave an idea of the volume. Whether the year's first Corn Bunting that passed over a garden at Weston during the afternoon was an overflying migrant or a previously overlooked temporary resident will hopefully be clarified in the next few days. The day's seawatching never really got going, with a lone Arctic Skua the only bird of particular note at the Bill.
