Portland Bird Observatory and Field Centre: 13th-23rd January

Since we're getting concern for welfare messages from folk worried about our wellbeing in the light of there not being any updates here for so long, we'd like to assure everyone we're fine and just getting on with a hatful of admin and maintenance jobs - bird-wise, there's just been so little going on that it hasn't been worth posting an update. The only slightly out of the ordinary event was a movement of Redwings and Fieldfares between 14th and 19th that was presumed to involve returning birds that had been displaced by the cold weather over Christmas/New Year; relatively few were seen by day but the nocmig recorder at the Obs logged as many as 152 Redwing calls on the night of 17th/18th. The only addition to the year list has been a Cetti's Warbler at the Bill on 17th that we're guessing is most likely a winterer that had remained undetected for several weeks. Most of the other routine winterers have remained in situ, with the sea coming up with a Little Gull at Chesil Cove on 22nd and a peak total of 33 Red-throated Divers through off the Bill on 17th.