9th April

Another day that ticked along under a blazing sun and in a still cool northeasterly. For Hoopoe-aficionados it was a day of frustration and then delight, as first off one showed all too briefly for just its finder at Wakeham; however, a second individual later showed fabulously well for all-comers inside the Verne Citadel. Common migrants weren't at all plentiful, with Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler barely making 30 apiece at the Bill, but a nice selection of the less routine around the island included double figures of both Common and Black Redstarts, 3 Ring Ouzels, 3 Pied Flycatchers and at least singles of Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Whinchat and Redpoll. The sea was never busy but did come with 27 Red-throated Divers, 3 Arctic Skuas and a Great Skua through off the Bill.

After a series of either brief or long range Hoopoes so far this spring it was nice to see one that performed impeccably © Martin Cade: 

Our usual after tea routine at this time of year is to have a look at Ferrybridge before trying a Chesil seawatch but today the tide was high and 20 minutes peering into Lyme Bay revealed not a single bird worth a mention, so to salvage the evening we popped over to Weymouth for a look at the Subalpine Warbler very well found at the weekend by James Lowther in the slightly unlikely setting of some anonymous hedges/fields behind Weymouth Police Station. With the blackthorn hedges already in shade it probably wasn't the best time of day to look for something as furtive as this but just occasionally it did actually show moderately well, albeit always very briefly. We didn't hear any calls and aren't aware any have been heard/recorded, and there was no clear view of the tail pattern, but from what we could see there was no good reason to suppose it isn't a Western Subalpine which would be overwhelmingly the most likely possibility this early in the spring © Martin Cade:

ring ouzel verne moat

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— andylportland.bsky.social (@andylportland.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 5:37 PM