Migration in full swing!

These past few days have seen an extraordinary influx of our common spring migrants returning to the south coast in massive numbers. Portland Bird Observatory doing extremely well with triple figures of Willow Warblers, Wheatears, Swallows passing through. Notable counts of Grasshopper Warbler, Ring Ouzel, Whinchat, Lesser Whitethroat, Redstarts, Pied Flycatchers across the Island and other sites in Dorset & Devon recording similar numbers.
I spent several hours on patch every morning, hour in afternoon & an evening walk during the past few days recording migrant passage on site with some notable records for Charmouth!

Daily counts are carried out 06:00-08:00am, 13:00-14:00pm and either 17:00-20:00pm or 19:00-20:30pm depending on evening work finish hours!

So far regular patch walks down by the ponds, wet meadows and the willow glade have produced the following notable sightings. Recent grass mowing on top fields have made suitable habitat for Wheatear! However none seen today 20th April so presuming all have passed through now. The Willow Glade on patch is a mixed habitat of Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Willow & Hazel coppice with dense bramble patches which as proved very fruitful in holding large numbers of Warblers feeding up but only for short periods!

The wild flower meadows on site have started to flower now, but the bordering gorse hedgeline & bramble thickets turned up 2 Redstart and 2 Whinchats!!Rather unexpected find. Yesterdays male Redstart by the lakes in the willow glade passed through quick along with several Willow Warblers and Sedge Warbler. Blackcap are present in high numbers across the site!

Tally Count on 18th April: 70 Willow Warbler, 56 Chiffchaff, 50+ Blackcap, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Lsr Whitethroat, 2 Grasshopper Warbler, 3 Sedge Warbler, 2 Reed Warbler, 4 Tree Pipit, 100+ Swallow, 58 House Martin, 2 Whinchat, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 15 Wheatear and 2 Redstart.

Tally Count on 19th April: 30 Willow Warbler, 15 Chiffchaff, 40 Blackcap, 4 Redstart, 1 Whitethroat & 3 Sedge Warbler. Notable count of 80+ Swallow over and decent flocks of Meadow Pipit & Wheatear in top fields.

Great to hear singing Grasshopper Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Tree Pipit and Redstart on patch during the week, hopefully indicating breeding birds for the area!

Today on patch still showed significant numbers of Willow Warblers present included several "Northern" very grey type birds. No sign of any Redstart, Wheatear, Gropper or Whinchat. However Tree Pipit in full song, 2 Reed Warbler, Blackcap, Whitethroat & Chiffchaff all present in full song. It seems after the last few days, there has been a near-complete clearout of migrants due to clear skies & lack of cloud cover!

Here is a collection of recent images of the Spring Migrant influx on patch. Hoping for another fall in the not too distant future.

Blackcap

Blackcap

Chiffchaff

Swallow-One of many back nesting in the barns

One of several Wheatears in top field

1st summer male Wheatear

Whinchat 

Whitethroat

Willow Warbler

Female Blackcap

Redstart

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Vixen Fox watching while I was watching some Warblers

Spring Migrants on Patch!!!

Over the past few weeks, spring migrants have been increasing slowly across the patch. Most notable species increase in Chiffchaff with 50+ recorded on site on the 22nd March. On 23rd March shows complete clear out of Chiffchaff with only 2 present on site!! Numbers of late have been averaging around 20-30+ birds across the patch. Many in the Willows, Reedbeds and lakeside scrub. Chiffchaff counts below 5th Feb-30th March

05/02/2017	15
09/02/2017	2
14/02/2017	2
15/02/2017	1
12/03/2017	40
18/03/2017	18
22/03/2017	50
23/03/2017	2
27/03/2017	20
28/03/2017	30
30/03/2017	25

The first Willow Warbler of the year was recorded on 21st March. Only small numbers lately. At present numbers have fluctuated with 20+ recorded on 1st April.

27/03/2017	5
28/03/2017	5
30/03/2017	15

Blackcap have increased significantly on patch with several wintering presents at the end of February. First singing males in song during mid-March. Numbers of passage birds present throughout March with notable count of 12 on the 30th. Numbers on varying depending on weather conditions. Hoping for some big increases in  numbers in the coming days.

27/03/2017	8
28/03/2017	6
30/03/2017	12

Other notable sightings on patch include 1st Wheatear on 13th March and singles recorded recently. 4 Marsh Tit, 3 Green Woodpecker, 2 Stonechat, 4 Yellowhammer, 2 Dipper, 1 Red Kite, 20+ Sand Martin and 2 Kingfisher.

Had my 1st Redstart of the year on patch briefly passing through the willow glade on 1st April. An early, unexpected record and hopefully a good omen of some fantastic migration and birds to arrive in the coming weeks!! However patch birding yesterday only produced 6 Chiffchaff and single Blackcap!! A total clearout of all previous birds seen in recent days. So watch this space and hopefully will get a big influx of warblers in soon!!

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

Marsh Tit