It was another blink and you'll miss it kind of day on the birding front, with the majority of new arrivals shooting straight on past making the land feel rather devoid in comparison. A particularly prompt Common Swift and the first 3 Yellow Wagtails of the spring were the highlights of the overhead passage, with a 2-hour stint along the West Cliffs seeing 113 Linnets, 107 Swallows, 71 Meadow Pipits, 35 Goldfinches, and 3 House Martins logged. A roaming Lapwing was an unseasonable record at the Bill where 2 Common Redstarts, a Greenfinch and single figures of Chiffchaffs were the only other reports. Additionally, news from a local Facebook group revealed that the year's first Hoopoe had made a visit to a private garden on the island. The sea was far more reliable for both numbers and variety today, with 456 Common Scoters, 215 Sandwich Terns, 16 Knot, 9 Teal, 4 Arctic Terns, 2 Eiders and singles of Velvet Scoter, Arctic Skua and Great Skua through off the Bill. Lesser totals of Common Scoter were also seen off the Chesil where 13 Little Terns and a Whimbrel were firsts for the season and a single Grey Plover was also logged; another 2 Whimbrel along with 14 Dunlin and a Sanderling were at Ferrybridge.
Two incoming Painted Lady butterflies along the West Cliffs and a Red Admiral in the Obs garden were hopefully a positive sign for more favourable lepidopteran migration in the moth-traps over the next few nights.
Common Scoters and Sandwich Terns made up all the numbers during this morning's seawatch at the Bill...
...whilst the camera picked up just enough detail on this distant, tight flock of anonymous-looking winter-plumaged waders scorching through off the Bill to confirm them as the year's first Knots:
