It was always going to be hard work detecting any migrant activity in today's battering northwesterly, but all attempts at fieldwork suggested it was genuinely a quiet day for new arrivals. On the ground, just 3 Chiffchaffs, 2 Wheatears and a new Firecrest were logged, whilst visible migration overhead included a Grey Heron at the Bill and a Merlin over Chesil Cove. At sea, a noticeable increase in Sandwich Terns included 25 heading through off the Bill, where 4 Red-throated Divers and a trickle of Manx Shearwaters were also logged.
Of all the birds we ring at Portland one of the easiest to catch is the Meadow Pipit - migrant youngsters in particular respond readily to a sound-lure and we catch several hundred each September and October; amongst these we occasionally 'control' already ringed birds so have knowledge of, for example, connections to a breeding site in mid-Wales and to several other migration stop-offs in southern England. However, once these migrants depart the country we have pretty well no knowledge through ring recoveries of where they spend the winter or return to during subsequent breeding seasons. Interestingly, we do know a lot more about our local breeding population which it seems are pretty well resident as we have plenty of subsequent recatches of locally-raised youngsters during all seasons of the year. With all this in mind we've been very excited to receive news of one of our autumn-ringed migrants being discovered earlier this week in Northumberland - it had been ringed here on 22nd September last year and the ring was read in the field on 22nd March by Chris Redfern whilst he was checking out a population of colour-ringed Rock Pipits that he studies on Low Newton beach...
