The clear night sky did us no favours when it came to dropping nocturnal migrants but the diurnal movers were loving the sunshine, with Sand Martins in particular putting on a great show and wader variety noticeably picking up. Sand Martins were both moving and lingering, with c200 leaving out to sea from the Bill where upwards of 500 were in a swirling mass over the fields at times; 100 Swallows and 50 Swifts also passed through overhead. It was considerably quieter on the ground, with 3 Yellow Wagtails, 2 Sedge Warblers and singles of Little Egret and Wheatear the best on offer at the Bill, where the sea was also relatively slow: at least 8 Yellow-legged Gulls were still offshore but a single Great Crested Grebe was the pick of miscellany passing by. Waders were well represented, with 14 Sanderling, 3 Little Ringed Plovers and 2 Black-tailed Godwits amongst the selection at Ferrybridge; a Green Sandpiper passed over at Sweethill and 7 Dunlin, 2 Sanderlings and singles of Ringed Plover and Redshank passed over at the Bill.
...while these three Little Ringed Plovers had dropped in by the evening.
We always enjoy being at Ferrybridge when the incoming tide coincides with the end of the day as there's often an exodus of waders that have fed up well during the daylight hours; as the last of the mud gets covered small groups of birds often tower up - usually calling constantly - and head away to the south to begin the next overnight leg of their south-bound migration...
...this evening a few little groups of Dunlin trickled away...
More of the same today, with fair weather bringing forth a good bit of migrant activity on the ground, overhead and on the sea. Grounded arrivals at the Bill included 2 Sedge Warblers, a Common Sandpiper and a Yellow Wagtail but passage there was much more conspicuous overhead, where c200 Sand Martins, c 100 Swallows, 22 Swifts and a Siskin passed through. The sea was also busy, with 97 Mediterranean Gulls, 67 Common Scoter, 26 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 21 Yellow-legged Gulls, 4 Manx Shearwaters, 2 Whimbrel and singles of Great Northern Diver, Storm Petrel and Puffin passed by, with a few more Yellow-legged Gulls and 2 Arctic Skuas lingering offshore. Ferrybridge totals included 47 Dunlin, a Sanderling and a Whimbrel.
In its own low-key, mid-July sort of way today was an oddly ripping little day, with it feeling for the first time this month that autumn passage was really getting going. With interest on the ground, overhead and over the sea a bit more coverage would have been helpful and would likely have turned up a little more variety on the ground; as it was, Green Sandpiper and Willow Warbler at the Bill and Great Spotted Woodpecker at Sweethill were firsts for the season and totals of at least 70 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 37 Yellow-legged Gulls at the Bill - the latter the highest count so far from their recent influx - were of note. Migrant-wise, a small passage of hirundines - including 100 Sand Martins through at the Bill - and an increase in Dunlin to 54 at Ferrybridge accounted for the bulk of the rest of the numbers, with 2 Whimbrel and singles of Sanderling and Redshank adding some variety at Ferrybridge. Mediterranean Gulls put in a strong showing offshore, with 120 through off the Bill where 53 Common Scoter, 19 Manx Shearwaters, 10 commic terns, 2 Balearic Shearwaters and a Ringed Plover also passed by.
Time-wise, today was spot on for our first Green Sandpiper of the season:
Some nice pulses of Sand Martins were on the move...
...they've obviously been breeding well somewhere or another - all 26 that we netted in an impromptu attempt to catch a few that were lingering over the Crown Estate Field proved to be sparklingly fresh youngsters:
In marked contrast to the super smart Sand Martins, the season's first Willow Warbler was a right shoddy-looking adult in active moult...
...it'd be interesting to know from how far away this one had dispersed from - we're imagining that not too many breed in Dorset these days:
A much improved list from today's efforts despite the stiff westerly breeze being very reluctant to die down. The return of an offshore gull flock lured back a considerable number of Yellow-legged Gulls, with at least 25 logged during the course of the morning seawatch and later up to 18 loafing birds settled in the fields; 30 each of Mediterranean Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull were also lingering, with another 22 Lesser Black-backs also departing to the south; an unseasonable Great Northern Diver was a surprise among the morning's passage offshore that also included 24 Common Scoter, 11 Manx Shearwaters, 3 Arctic Skuas and 2 Whimbrel. A Reed Warbler was new at the Bill, with 32 Sand Martins, 16 Swallows and 2 Little Egrets on the move overhead and the odd dispersing Blackcap and Chiffchaff also getting on the tally. Ferrybridge also attracted one or two newcomers, most notable of which was a lone Black-tailed Godwit; 54 Mediterranean Gulls, 10 Sandwich Terns, 3 Dunlin, 2 each of Shelduck, Curlew and Redshank, and the lingering Knot were also there.
All very quiet still in the continuing blustery westerlies. The return of a gull flock off East Cliffs saw the reappearance of a few Yellow-legged Gull - at least 5 at times - and an Arctic Skua was in attendance; 4 Common Scoter and a lone Manx Shearwater represented the poorest of returns when it came to passage offshore. Incremental improvements in the wader situation saw today's Ferrybridge tally consist of 53 Dunlin, 4 Sanderling, a Knot and a Whimbrel.
The wind freshened still further today and was gusting well into gale force by the afternoon although for the most part the rain held off. For no good reason other than most other birding was out of the question the sea was well covered but the results were pitiful, with just 18 Manx Shearwaters, 18 Common Scoter and a lone Balearic Shearwater through off the Bill and nothing of any note at all at Chesil Cove; the gale seemed to have dispersed many of the gulls that had been offshore and only odd singles of Yellow-legged Gull - perhaps involving no more than a couple of individuals - appeared from time to time at the Bill. The Ferrybridge wader tally increased to 45 Dunlin, 5 Sanderling and a Common Sandpiper.
This time last year we were probably moaning about the effects of the summer-long drought on our stewardship crops, but today they were in danger of being washed out of the ground, blown over or suffering salt-burn such was the ferocity of the gale and rain that arrived courtesy of an unseasonable depression sweeping through. For the most part sea-watching was utterly unrewarding, with just 22 Manx Shearwaters, 17 Common Scoter and a Balearic Shearwater through off the Bill, although the continuing Yellow-legged Gulls did provide constant entertainment there - numbers were again hard to assess, but examples of up to 12 settled together at times in the fields and 15 through west off the Bill in an hour during the evening suggested that 30 was likely to have been an underestimate. Overhead at the Bill, many dozens of Swifts were apparent at times during the spells of lighter rain but there was no clear evidence that they were moving rather than just circulating while being undecided about quite to escape the grim conditions. Elsewhere, 24 Dunlin, 2 Redshank, 2 Sandwich Terns and a Common Sandpiper were at Ferrybridge.
At Ferrybridge the Little Terns have been fortunate to escape the contagion that's swept through the other Dorset tern colonies and are now fledging in good numbers...
...whilst wader numbers finally picked up a little and included this Common Sandpiper...
7th April a singing male arrives at the Bill and appears to take up territory, ranging widely for the next few days;
15th April a second singing male arrives but appears not to remain;
25th April the first male and a female trapped and ringed at the Obs and continue to be seen together during subsequent days with the male singing frequently;
10th May a second female trapped and ringed at Culverwell, with sporadic sightings of a pair for the rest of the month but very little song heard and the birds generally very furtive;
5th June the male starts singing more or less continually, mainly at the Obs garden, and continues to do this for several days but thereafter goes quiet and no further sightings of either it or a female;
27th June the male and second female retrapped and found to be in breeding condition (the male with a strong cloacal protuberance and the female with a conspicuous brood patch);
Our interpretation of events, which may be entirely wide of the mark, is that an initial breeding attempt involving the long-staying male and first female failed on or about 4th June and the male then struck up with the second female which was still about but hadn't been noticed. Out of interest, with the exception of periods when the male has been singing, it's been remarkable how unobtrusive these birds have been: although we've tended to give the 'action' a wide berth and most our meaningful encounters from the point of view of understanding the situation have been via the serendipitous handling of the birds during the course of our normal ringing operations, we've never really had a clear idea of where the nest site(s) have been and the many visiting birders to the Bill have had almost no random encounters with the birds since late April - there must be a good chance that breeding attempts in less well-watched parts of the Dorset coast could easily escape attention if a singing male hadn't been noticed early in the attempt.
On an altogether more esoteric note, before this event unfolded we didn't know Cirl Bunting at all well and were surprised when listening to the male how readily it switched between two obviously different versions of the rattling song - if you've watched the video above you'll have heard it do just this but here it is again with two 'ordinary' rattles followed by two slightly slower and lower-pitched rattles. On looking this up in BWP it turns out to be perfectly well documented, albeit without any explanation as to why this 'song-switching' might occur:
When the Cirl Buntings first turned up we also found ourselves struggling to remember how you told their song from that of Lesser Whitethroat, which in turn reminded us of being in Russia years ago listening to and sound recording Arctic Warblers and thinking how similar they sounded to both these more routine singers. The differences are relatively subtle and relate to the speed of the rattle and its pitch, with both Lesser Whitethroat and Arctic Warbler also throwing in further helpful clues - the former usually precedes the rattle with a bit of a rambling warble, whereas the latter usually chucks in one or more of its characteristic 'zik' call-notes before each rattle. Here are two rattles each of Cirl Bunting, Lesser Whitethroat and Arctic Warbler, together with a sonogram comparison of the individual rattles:
Nagging blustery westerlies persisted and ensured it was the sea that got most of the day's attention. Yellow-legged Gulls again provided much of the interest, with the day's peak count of 29 at the Bill during the evening constituting an island record total but also believed to underestimate the numbers present not only at that moment but also over the day as a whole; at least 45 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 40 Mediterranean Gulls also lingered offshore, whilst 8 Common Scoter, 4 Balearic Shearwaters, 2 Manx Shearwaters and 2 Arctic Skuas passed by on the sea. Another steady trickle of Sand Martins saw 50 logged leaving from the Bill, along with 2 Swifts and a House Martin. Five Common Sandpipers were also at the Bill, with another 2 at Ferrybridge along with 8 Dunlin and a Redshank.
Wader interest today included the Common Sandpipers at the Bill...
Another not especially summery day, with a brisk westerly blowing throughout. The Yellow-legged Gull influx - one of the best ever this early in the season - continued, with comings and goings off the Bill all day and a minimum of 18 at one time there during the evening; at least 41 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 20 Mediterranean Gulls were also present there, whilst 118 Manx Shearwaters, a Balearic Shearwater and singles of Dunlin and Whimbrel passed through on the sea. Fifty Sand Martins, 6 Swallows and a House Martin headed south overhead but it was less rewarding on the ground where little more was uncovered than the lingering Blackcap at the Bill.
In the absence of much else to report from today we'll skip back to May having recently received word from Martin Collinson of his University of Aberdeen team's results from feather samples of our two subalpine warblers. The genetics provided a further level of confirmation for the Moltoni's Warbler on 12th May: the recordings and in-field/in-hand evidence had already established it was a Moltoni's and the lab work showed that it was indeed an entirely typical one:
Blustery again today with the sea getting most of the attention. The Herring Gull and Gannet flock off the Bill lingered all day and proved constantly attractive to a succession of other gulls that included c30 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, c20 Mediterranean Gulls and c15 Yellow-legged Gulls; 2 Arctic Skuas were in constant attention, whilst a good many of the 60 passing Manx Shearwaters also joined the melee for short periods. Six Common Scoter, 5 Sandwich Terns, 3 Balearic Shearwaters and a Whimbrel were also logged there.
This season's incursion of Yellow-legged Gulls got going yesterday and there were even more about today, with ten or more at a time lingering amongst the gull flock off the Bill:
Lesser Black-backs have also suddenly increased, although these are going the opposite way to the arriving Yellow-legged Gulls: we watched quite a few both last evening and again this morning that left to the south until they disappeared from view - next stop Cherbourg harbour?
Also of interest at the Bill tip, the gulls were often frenzied in their quest for whatever it is that's attracting them; bigger fish - are these Bass? - were also attracted and at times the water looked to be boiling and they all broke the surface:
The sea's gone a lot quieter now that pretty well all the local auks have departed - today's trickle of passing birds had all the look of outsiders that were speeding through en route to their offshore moulting grounds:
Shearwaters didn't feature in any numbers today - as they haven't for most of this summer; a trickle of Manx were heading west...
...and the day's only Balearics didn't look as though they were hanging around either:
The forecast downturn in the weather duly begun to materialise, with a blustery southerly blowing up ahead of the arrival of overcast skies and, towards evening, the onset of drizzly rain. Plenty of effort was made on the land but the day's chief rewards - and numbers - were from the sea, with 124 Manx Shearwaters, 16 Black-headed Gulls, 14 Mediterranean Gulls,11 Common Scoter, 10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 2 Arctic Skuas and a Balearic Shearwater through off the Bill; the first 6 Yellow-legged Gulls of the season were also logged there, but the majority of these were arriving from the south and carrying on northward rather than passing by. Swifts and hirundines were again on the move overhead, with 60 Swifts, 16 Sand Martins and 15 Swallows leaving out to sea from the Bill; as the cloud increased later in the day, several dozen Swifts also lingering overhead. Other interest was limited to an extra Blackcap joining the lingerer at the Bill and a Common Sandpiper at Ferrybridge.
The non-event of early autumn passage continued apace with a handful of departing Swifts and hirundines - namely, 12 Swifts, 21 Swallows and 2 Sand Martins - the only sign of movement today. Three Common Scoter and a Manx Shearwater passed by offshore and a Redshank was the only wader of note at Ferrybridge.
Dark Crimson Underwing from the Obs moth-traps this mrng; seems to be becoming regular stray here these days - this is already the second this summer pic.twitter.com/l4qZYxmsDW
— Portland Bird Observatory (@PortlandBirdObs) July 9, 2023
A uneventful day with showers and longer spells of rain - including some real deluges during the afternoon - scuppering attempts at meaningful fieldwork. A trickle of departing Swifts included 16 leaving out to sea from the Bill, 23 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Curlews, 2 Common Scoter, 2 Balearic Shearwaters and a Whimbrel passed by off the Bill, the lingering Blackcap was still at the Bill and 61 Mediterranean Gulls, 21 Black-headed Gulls, 6 Ringed Plover, 2 Dunlin and a Redshank were at Ferrybridge.
Another absolutely blazing day saw another surprise oddity arrive in off the sea, this time a Spoonbill that arrived over the Bill before dropping in briefly at Ferrybridge. Routine migration wasn't exactly a spectacle, but 42 Sand Martins and 32 Swifts through over the Bill, 30 Sand Martins through over Ferrybridge, 49 Mediterranean Gulls, 34 Common Scoter and 14 commic terns through off the Bill and a big jump to 140 in Mediterranean Gull numbers at Ferrybridge did provide some numbers to get amongst. List-padders included the lingering Blackcap at the Bill, singles of Arctic Skua and Sandwich Tern through off the Bill and a/the Grey Wagtail at Blacknor.
After the lamentable summer birding dented our enthusiasm for a narrative blog it's probably time to get going again - this might prove to be a false start but we'll see... A quiet, mainly overcast dawn that gave way to a blazingly bright afternoon and evening offered some hope on the migrant front but - this not being Nanjizal - new passerines were entirely absent from the day's tally. An incoming Honey Buzzard over the Bill was quite a surprise for early July and a customary selection of waders included 2 Whimbrel and a Curlew through at the Bill and 2 Dunlin and singles of Redshank and Greenshank at Ferrybridge but the day's numbers were either offshore, where a good passage of 115 Common Scoter featured at the Bill or involved post-breeding dispersal of Mediterranean Gulls that included 54 at Ferrybridge. Other odds and ends from the sea included singles of Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua and Sandwich Tern through off the Bill, whilst Ferrybridge further chipped in with 8 Sandwich Terns amongst others. On the passerine front, lingering singles of Grey Wagtail and Blackcap were at the Bill.
After a bumper spell last week the moth-traps have quietened down in recent nights but there's still been morsels of interest to keep us entertained. Last night's catch at the Obs included only the third island record of Cloaked Carpet...
A reminder for Obs members that our AGM is being held at the Obs at 4:30pm this Saturday evening - 8th July; buffet refreshments including a barbeque will be available after the meeting. An agenda for the meeting is available here
Portland Bill
Manx Shearwater 54 mainly w
Balearic Shearwater 10w
Common Scoter 13w
Mediterranean Gull 14
Sandwich Tern 3w
Grey Wagtail 1
Regular visitors to the Bill will have seen the huge numbers of mainly Herring Gulls gathered offshore in often dramatic feeding frenzies during recent summers. We've never been entirely clear what it is that's attracting them, save to say that it's presumably some sort of small fry-sized prey since whatever it is it's never visible in the bird's bills when they the surface from their dip-feeding frenzy. Very often there are Gannets feeding peripherally around the gull flocks that are diving for larger fish presumably attracted by the same prey that the gulls are after. Fishing boats are also often in attendance and thanks to Don Moxom and John Dadds we've been passed this amazing bit of drone video filmed by fisherman, Ryan Casey, of an enormous Bass shoal in the vicinity. Bass-fishing has always been a big deal off the Bill but we had no idea that the fish occurred in these sort of numbers!
