21st October

 After several days of inclement weather, visible migration was back on track today, with a steady stream of migrants overhead at the Bill including 1200 Starlings, 435 Goldfinches, 380 Linnets, 150 Meadow Pipits, 70 alba wagtails, 63 Siskin, 50 Redwing, 40 Chaffinches, 9 Crossbills, 9 Redpolls, 7 Greenfinches, 3 Brambling and singles of Golden Plover and Fieldfare. With the nagging wind lingering on, quantifying the grounded migrants at the Bill was less straight forward, but amongst a noticeable decrease in Chiffchaffs and increase in Goldcrests, new arrivals of note included 5 Firecrests, 4 Wheatears and singles of Merlin, Ring Ouzel, Whinchat, Black Redstart and Cetti's Warbler - along with the long-staying Wryneck - with several more Firecrests and another Ring Ouzel fiurther up-island. Sea interest waned, with a lone Great Skua as good as it got off the Bill.

Moving Starlings were the feature of the morning's visible passage over the Bill, with a constant procession of flocks heading southwest © Martin Cade...

...not before time, we also tapped into a modest number of Crossbills, although why it's taken this long to see more than just the very occasional single when they've been moving along the mainland coast in quantity for literally months remains a mystery © Joe Stockwell:

With better coverage of the extremities of the island today's total of two Ring Ouzel would likely have been increased © Joe Stockwell:

Where have all the maurus Siberian Stonechats gone? Today's late-ish Whinchat was nice but it did bring to mind that it's umpteen years since there's been a maurus on Portland - in fact, it's so long ago that off the top of our head we can't even remember when the last one was; surely, another must be massively overdue © Joe Stockwell:

Ringing attempts resumed today at the Bill after a couple of days of weather interruption. 88 ringed a decent catch but changes afoot with Chiffchaffs down to just 3 new; Goldcrests still arriving with 11 new but a good hit on Linnets saw them tops with 31. Fourth Cetti's W of the autumn a highlight

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— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) October 21, 2025 at 6:38 PM