An incremental improvement today saw the wind very gradually begin to die down and permit some more thorough coverage of the land. It was still the sea that was busiest, with minima of 20000
auks, 300
Mediterranean Gulls and 120
Common Gulls providing quite a spectacle off the Bill; movement of interest there included 100
Common Scoter, 52
Teal, 22
Cormorants, 19
Wigeon, 16
Brent Geese, 2
Red-breasted Mergansers and singles of
Red-throated Diver,
Great Northern Diver and
Pochard. Of equal spectacle to the seabirds was an in-bound passage of 1430
Starlings and 935
Chaffinches, with 64
Siskins, 12
Lapwings, 3
Golden Plovers and a
Lapland Bunting among the other overhead movers. It ticked over steadily on the ground as well although the numbers were far lower; 3
Dartford Warblers, 2 each of
Snipe,
Great Spotted Woodpecker and
Firecrest, and singles of
Jack Snipe,
Black Redstart and
Cetti's Warbler provided the best of the interest around the south of the island. A busy morning at Ferrybridge saw 632
Brent Geese, 2
Pale-bellied Brents, 9
Lapwings, 8
Shelduck, 5
Wigeon, 4
Goosanders and 3
Knot logged.
The fourth Dartford Warbler ringed this autumn - a total that equals our previous annual record of four in 1991 © Martin Cade:
Goosanders have been quite frequent just lately a little further up The Fleet so an appearance at Ferrybridge had been on the cards...
...and Knots and Wigeon amongst the Brents © Pete Saunders:
Three hours slogging around the southern half of Portland today produced only a Firecrest of note, plus Lapwing, GS W'pecker, a scattering of Chiff's, and good no's of Linnet & Goldfinch. I'd imagine tomorrow could be a good day when the wind finally drops! @dorsetbirdclub.bsky.social
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— Phil Saunders (@beardybirder.bsky.social) November 5, 2026 at 4:05 PM
