The Portland PortalThe visitor guide to the beautiful Isle of Portland, Dorset

23rd – With it remaining quite breezy the only reports were of seawatching at the Bill, that produced 500 Manx Shearwaters, 2 Balearic Shearwaters and 2 Arctic Skuas. The first Lulworth Skippers of the year were on the wing at the Bill. 24th – Overnight rain took a good deal longer than we’d expected to [...]

16th – Barely a sniff of an improvement in the weather today – if anything it got progressively windier as the day went on. For the most part seawatching was disappointingly unproductive, but persistence eventually produced a tally that included 5 Pomarine Skuas, 5 Arctic Skuas and 2 Storm Petrels through or lingering at Chesil [...]

9th – A gradual return to normality on the weather front saw the strength of the wind ease away as the day went on, although it remained brisk enough through the morning to ensure there was another decent selection of reports from the sea. The Bill produced the lion’s share of the numbers, with Manx [...]

2nd – A blast of easterly in increasingly poor conditions – fog was a feature for much of the day and light rain had arrived by early evening – made a bit of difference today, with a few late migrants dropping in and a couple of brief highlights. The quality was provided a Hawfinch that [...]

26th – Despite it remaining very warm the strength of the easterly wind put a real downer on proceedings today, making birding very difficult and restricting the catches in the moth-traps. An Osprey that arrived in off the sea at the Bill was the pick of the new arrivals, with the light scatter of ones [...]

19th – Distinctly milder and more pleasant conditions saw quite a resurgence in hirundine passage, with Swallows – and to a lesser but still surprising extent Sand Martins – arriving in off the sea throughout the day; a sample 10 minute count of 87 Swallows and 3 Sand Martins heading north along the West Cliffs [...]

12th – After all the recent rain a day of almost unbroken sunshine was particularly welcome. The brisk northerly wind that accompanied the change in the weather saw to it that passing migrants were made to struggle, with a nice array of mainly routine fare at least temporarily downed at the Bill. With many birds [...]

5th – Another constantly damp, dreary day was not quite so good for routine fare but did provide an unexpected highlight when the 5 White Storks that have been touring the country for the last fortnight appeared over the island during the morning: they were initially spotted arriving from the west over Southwell, before heading [...]

28th – As so often happens at migration times some of the grimmest conditions produce plenty of birds, and today proved to be no exception, with a morning of constant rain gaving way to a slightly drier afternoon that saw the north-easterly wind freshen to getting on for gale force by evening. The rain dropped [...]

21st – A pretty hefty dawn shower came just at the right moment to down a small arrival of mostly routine warblers, but it otherwise remained relatively quiet everywhere. Totals of 150 Willow Warblers and 30 Blackcaps made up the bulk of the numbers at the Bill, where the only less common migrants making the [...]