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 R
eed 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.
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| Blackcap |
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| Blackcap |
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| Chiffchaff |
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| Swallow-One of many back nesting in the barns |
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| One of several Wheatears in top field |
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| 1st summer male Wheatear |
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| Whinchat |
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| Whitethroat |
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| Willow Warbler |
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| Female Blackcap |
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| Redstart |
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| Willow Warbler |
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| Willow Warbler |
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| Vixen Fox watching while I was watching some Warblers |
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