28th September

With migration dwindling away to fewer and fewer birds grounded with each passing day a change in the weather was very much needed, and so it came to pass with this morning's mild and drizzly start that brought about a nice flurry of common migrants - as well as some scarcity interest to boot. Chiffchaffs once again made up the day's numbers, with continuous pulses of birds watched coming in off the sea and working their way northward; 300 were logged at the Bill and based on reports from the hinterland of every scrap of cover being rammed with them we wouldn't be at all surprised if the total for the whole island wasn't considerably in excess of 1000. Most of the usual late autumn suspects were represented on the day-sheet, amongst which highlights were a Glossy Ibis overhead at the Bill after dawn, a likely Siberian Lesser Whitethroat trapped in the Crown Estate Field, the Wryneck lingering on at Barleycrates Lane and singles of Great Spotted Woodpecker and Yellowhammer new at the Bill. The sea didn't really do much, with 3 Arctic Skuas and singles of Balearic Shearwater and Teal the best off the Bill

This morning's Glossy Ibis did a right little tour of the sights of Portland Bill © Martin Cade:

This morning's Lesser Whitethroat was quite an oddball, with a noticeable supercilium and a substantially reduced dark mask. Pretty well all of our genetically-checked late September onwards Lesser Whitethroats have proved to be blythi Siberian LWTs and although the bird's general appearance and tail pattern certainly accorded with those expected of that form, the head pattern was quite an oddity © Martin Cade:

Despite the afternoon's beautiful blue sky and warm temperature there was a real feel of the advance of autumn to proceedings, with crinkly sycamore leaves, red berries and clematis gone to seed very much the scene around the middle of the island where the likes of Chiffchaffs and Stonechats were really abundant. There was also quite a feel of change about the day's Chiffchaffs - in the hand, swarthy, long-winged and chunky birds were very much to the fore after a period when most had been smaller, shorter-winged and lighter © Martin Cade:

And finally, of no interest to anyone but geeky ringers, amongst today's Chiffchaffs was one bearing the rarely seen ring address of ARANZADI SAN SEBASTIAN (the majority of Spanish rings carry a MADRID-ICONA address). The Aranzadi Society of Sciences is a not-for-profit scientific association in the Basque Country, northern Spain, that's run its own ringing scheme since 1949; we're not sure how many birds they ring each year but we can only remember handling one of theirs before at Portland © Jodie Henderson:

the wryneck found a nice supply of ants by the looks, neck doing what it is meant to.

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— andylportland.bsky.social (@andylportland.bsky.social) September 28, 2025 at 9:52 PM

plenty of butterflies around but no sign of any 2nd gen silver studded blues at kingbarrow, a probable 3rd gen holly blue there was the only blue seen

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— andylportland.bsky.social (@andylportland.bsky.social) September 28, 2025 at 9:54 PM