A pretty slow day with migration hardly picking up at all after yesterday's northwesterly blow. Conditions were altogether more favourable for getting out looking but the rewards on the migrant front were scant, with no more than the lightest scatter of single
Wheatears,
Blackcaps,
Chiffchaffs,
Willow Warblers here and there around the Bill and Southwell; long-term lingers still about included 2 each of
Black Redstart and
Firecrest. A little more overhead included 176
Meadow Pipits and 64
Linnets north along West Cliffs during a more than four hour vismig watch there; a lone
Curlew also arrived in off the sea at the Bill. Up-Channel sea passage was limited to a few
Red-throated Divers and
Common Scoter through off the Bill. Also of local interest, scrutiny of the waterfowl menagerie behind the pumping station at Southwell revealed that there are now 11
Black Swans there along with the long-staying female
Mandarin - we'd venture to suggest that anyone still entertaining thoughts that the latter might be a 'countable for Portland' stray from mainland is being very optimistic!
This second calendar year Peregrine bombing around at the Bill tip this morning had all the look of a newly arrived migrant © Pete Saunders:
In the absence of much sea passage the Purple Sandpipers at the Bill got more attention than usual © Pete Saunders:
