4th March

The age old Portland early spring blight of a warm air/cold sea induced pea-souper enveloped the island today and severely impacted efforts to get amongst what seemed to be the very few migrants that made landfall. A small arrival of Meadow Pipits was evident but a lone Blackcap in the Obs garden mist-nets was the only other obvious arrival. Two Red-throated Divers through offshore soon after dawn represented the only sea passage logged before the fog clamped down.

3rd March

A gentle headwind was just enough to drop a steady arrival of passerines today, with Meadow Pipits featuring in numbers for the first time this spring and a few Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests at least briefly grounded at the Bill. The inbound Meadow Pipit tally over the Obs reached well into three figures, with plenty more visible in the distance heading along West Cliffs where there was unfortunately no meaningful coverage; a few Pied and/or unidentified alba wagtails were tagging along, with 2 Golden Plovers and singles of Wood Pigeon, Grey Wagtail and Siskin also logged at the Bill and the season's first Sand Martin through at Barleycrates Lane. On the ground, Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests totalled 10 and 5 respectively at the Bill, where there looked to be a few extra Stonechats about and the overwintering singles of Cetti's Warbler and Firecrest also put in appearances. The sea was quiet, with 5 Red-throated Divers the best of it off the Bill.

A nicely pollened Chiffchaffs amongst the new arrivals at the Bill...

...where the overwintering Cetti's Warbler made the day-sheet for only the second time this year - it measures up to be a female so wouldn't have been expected to burst into song and give itself away in that manner but if a bird like this can escape detection for so long in the vicinity of the Obs it does make you wonder how many other similarly furtive scarcities make landfall here and end up completely overlooked © Martin Cade:

Meadow Pipits made up the numbers overhead but the odd tag-along like this Golden Plover provided some additional interest © Martin Cade:

2nd March

Today's mildness and sunshine was so pleasant that it wouldn't really have mattered if there was nothing about, but a few more prompt migrants capped off proceedings very nicely. With so many Wheatears having already made it into the country our first ones seemed almost tardy by comparison but the first 3 at the Bill were very welcome nonetheless; passerine interest otherwise concerned just the odd few new presumably migrant Robins, Wrens and the like showing up in the Obs garden mist-nets. The sea was more rewarding on the numbers front, with the first up-Channel passage of Kittiwakes evident off the Bill, where 280 passed by during the first couple of hours of the morning; 7 Shovelers, 4 Common Scoters, 3 Red-throated Divers and a Curlew also passed by during the same watch - hardly a seawatch of Dungeness proportions but we'll take it.

It really is something when Wheatear passage is already so advance by 2nd March that our first one isn't even an adult male © Jodie Henderson:

Having sensibly held off on a trip to see it in yesterday's grotty conditions, Jodie's visit today to the Radipole Red-rumped Swallow was blessed by far more appropriate cloudless skies and warm sunshine © Jodie Henderson:

Great to be back at @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social even for a very fleeting visit this morning. Enjoyed the wintering flock of Purple Sandpipers and a steady up-channel passage of Kittiwakes before a day with swans at Abbotsbury enlivened by occasional visits from a White-tailed Eagle

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— Ben Sheldon (@sheldonbirds.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 9:39 PM

25th February-1st March

Continuing mild conditions, albeit turning increasingly blustery at times, saw just about enough signs of early migration to keep momentum going, with 2 Blackcaps on 25th, another new Chiffchaff on 27th and the year's first Rook to see out the end of February. Two Firecrests at the Bill and 2 Goldcrests at Southwell were new arrivals on 1st March, with overwintering singles of each also still about at the Obs. The rest of the winter fare remained in-situ with the only oddity being another flyby of a White-tailed Eagle on 26th. Interest on the sea remained particularly poor, with the year's first singles of Manx Shearwater on both 26th and 27th the only sightings of note. Lastly, mild, sunny conditions on 25th saw both Comma and Brimstone added to the butterfly year list.

We completely missed out on the small arrival of migrant moths that reached other parts of southwest England in recent nights, with our moth-traps providing us with nothing more than a handful of residents. A couple of these were species of minor interest because we don't see them at the Bill all that frequently: Small Eggar is a relatively recent colonist whose larval nests have been found at several sites around the north of the island but not yet at the Bill, whilst Spring Reveller Diurnea fagella is a moth we've often pondered on the origins of - the females are flightless so you'd assume that if the assiduous collectors of the Victorian age couldn't find it then it wasn't here then and never was going to be in the future; however, since 1989 occasional males have been trapped at the Obs and more recently have been caught in some numbers in moth-traps further up the island - surely they can't all be strays from the mainland and the moth must now be established, in which case how and when did the first females get here? © Martin Cade:

One of our more elusive winter visitors is the Water Rail currently residing at Culverwell which, barring a few squeals, is barely detected from one week to the next. A few attempts were needed to finally capture it out in the open via a remote trail camera © Jodie Henderson:

And finally, we nipped over to Weymouth at the end of the afternoon to have a look at the spectacularly early Red-rumped Swallow found by James Lowther at the north end of Radipole Lake. Despite the bird showing ever so well and coming right overhead at times a combination of the leaden sky, shocking light and us not having a decent camera to hand ensured we secured no more than the odd record shot of our first hirundine of the year © Martin Cade: