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 [...]