21st May

21st May: In increasingly summery conditions Woodchat Shrike at New Ground, Sooty Shearwater off the Bill, 4-5 Turtle Doves at the Bill and Curlew Sandpiper at Ferrybridge were the day's goodies. Big increase in Sanderlings - 94 at Ferrybridge and 10 at the Bill, with 2 Grey Plovers also at Fb...

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— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 10:44 PM

...common migrants incl a few new Wheatears & Spot Flys, 2 CCs & singles of Hobby, Whinchat, Reed Warbler & WW. 42 Common Scoter & singles of RtDiver, Balearic Shearwater, Pom Skua & Arctic Skua the best from the sea. Baby season getting going with first juv Stonechat and Linnet ringed today

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— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 10:52 PM

And a couple more random photos from the afternoon - a bit more context on the Woodchat...


...and a glimpse of the white rump on the Curlew Sandpiper © Martin Cade:


We also had an interesting few minutes at Ferrybridge when we were momentarily flummoxed by a Curlew Sandpiper vs Dunlin confusion. We'd straight away noticed the Curlew Sand at long range but were intent on getting a full count of all the waders present before we paid it proper attention; once the counting was done we went back to looking for the Curlew Sand to try for some photos and immediately latched onto this rather long-billed Dunlin that had virtually no black belly patch - although obviously a Dunlin it had such a Curlew Sand-ish feel to it that we were beginning to doubt whether we really had earlier seen a Curlew Sand - did we just string up this bird? Further scrutiny of the flock eventually revealed the real Curlew Sand but this presumably first-summer, longer-billed than average, schinzii Dunlin lacking almost any black belly patch certainly invited confusion © Martin Cade:





Pleased to see that the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies on the Crown Estate Field pond have persisted for another year - several on the wing there in the warm sunshine at the moment; also just now the first Emperor Dragonflies of the year emerging from one of the Obs garden ponds

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— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 1:28 PM