19th March

A lovely feeling day with hardly a breath of wind through the morning, largely overcast but some warm sunshine late morning before mist and murk moved in on a slowly increasing easterly breeze; a walk round the southern end of Portland again first thing revealed it to be steady without being spectacular as my migrants totals comprised 70+ Chiffchaffs, 28 Wheatears, my first 18 Sand Martins of the year, 4 Black Redstarts, 10 Stonechats, 3 Willow Warblers, 22 Goldcrests and a Blackcap.   There was also an obvious, corresponding increase in Meadow Pipits and alba Wagtails across the area with the odd Chaffinch, Linnet and Greenfinch flying about which may or may not have been migrants.

Wheatear

Chiffchaffs

Stonechat

Wheatear

Black Redstart

Kestrel

18th March

A walk round the southern end of Portland in the morning produced a handful of fresh migrants despite the brisk westerly wind; totals included my first 17 Wheatears of the year, a Black Redstart, 22+ Chiffchaffs, 8+ Stonechats and a trickle of Meadow Pipits and a couple of alba Wagtails in off the sea whilst other birds included a pair of Peregrines over the Bill, good numbers of Auks on the cliffs and plenty of Kestrels.   The first Willow Warbler was trapped at the Obs around mid-morning.   Didn’t see much in the afternoon but a walk round Radipole RSPB produced a good spread of Chiffchaffs throughout (presumably new in) and a singing Blackcap before a group of 10 Manx Shearwaters went east late afternoon, as seen from the Obs – also my first of the year.

Black Redstarts

Raven

Peregrine

Kestrel

Wall Lizard

16th March

A wonderful spring day, wall to wall sunshine and light winds; a walk down the River Teme from Leintwardine first thing produced four singing Chiffchaffs, five Mandarin, a Green Sandpiper, two Dippers, a Goosander, 6 Little Egrets, two Greylag Geese (probably a site tick for me!) and a Grey Wagtail.   A look around Benthall Pools late morning then produced two more singing Chiffchaffs, excellent totals of 52 Canada Geese and 6 Greylag Geese (record totals for me here), two Little Grebes, four Teal and loads of soaring Buzzards in the fine weather.

Mandarin

Little Egret

10th - 12th March

A couple of days birding out east; popped into Grafham Water, late morning on the 10^th where birds included 2 Common Sandpiper on the reservoir edge opposite the lagoons (presumably wintering birds rather than migrants), 2 Avocets also on the shore, a Red Kite, 2 singing Cetti’s Warblers, my first singing Chiffchaff of the spring around the lagoons and a couple of noisy Green Woodpeckers.   

A good morning birding in the Brecks on the 11^th produced the highlights of good views of a pair of Woodlark at Santon Downham with then good but brief flight views of a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker along the river at the now very famous last site in Norfolk after it called several times, getting closer and closer and finally distant views of a Great Grey Shrike near Fincham.   

Started the 12^th at Thornham, where I turned up bang on a super-high tide so everything was underwater but I did have a flyover Twite (a year-tick); I then failed to find the Shorelarks at Holkham (probably again due to the super-high tide) but there was a single Snow Bunting there.   A scan from the main road was then the most productive stop of the day overlooking Holkham Marsh where there were at least 4 Spoonbills with one feeding on the pools and another couple in the trees, thinking about starting to nest; also here were 300+ Avocets, 60+ Black-tailed Godwits, a Ruff, 2 Great White Egrets and thousands of duck, constantly flushed by 9+ Marsh Harriers and 3 Red Kites – a great Norfolk scene!

Woodlark

Stonechat

6th - 8th March

Left Spurn at Lunchtime on the 6th after ringing a couple more Chaffinches and a Greenfinch with a little look around Rufford Country Park in the afternoon just producing 11 Goosander and a Grey Wagtail.   Drove south on the 7th via a little look at West Park in Wolverhampton where the fine drake FERRUGINOUS DUCK was showing well, albeit distantly around the island on the lake as a proper wild bird should (!).   A couple of walks down the River Teme at Leintwardine and a look up near Bury Ditches produced the highlights of a Willow Tit along the River near, Brampton Bridge (not seen one here before) with a  Green Sandpiper, a pair of Mandarin, two Little Egrets and a Dipper also along the River and a smart adult male Peregrine above Clunton along with a Sparrowhawk and loads of Buzzards and Red Kites playing in the wind while there were c6 Tree Sparrows with the regular Chaffinch and Yellowhammer flock in the stubble fields.

Ferruginous Duck in Wolverhampton

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Pochard

Grey Wagtail

Moorhen

Grey Wagtail and Dipper

5th March

Still calm first thing but a chilly, brisk NE wind did start to appear by lunchtime; ringing numbers were slightly down again as they comprised 2 Greenfinches, 2 Great Tits, 2 Blackbirds and single Song Thrush, Chaffinch and Tree Sparrow.   The only other birds I saw through the day were during a productive hour spent at the Skeffling carpark at lunchtime where birds on the incoming tide included 9 Mediterranean Gulls (two adults, two 3cy and five 2cy birds) and 97 Pintail in amongst the clouds of Dunlin, Knot and Grey Plover while the Easington Straight 15 Whooper Swans were in fields there.

Chaffinch

4th March

Another lovely, largely sunny, calm day – quite warm when the sun was out; ringing at Kew was quieter than yesterday though with 11 new birds trapped, comprising five Greenfinches and single Chaffinch, Great Tit, Dunnock, Song Thrush, Starling and Reed Bunting (plus a re-trap which had originally been ringed in 2015).   Overhead it was quieter as well with just and handful of Skylarks and Corvids heading south.   A walk to Sammy’s and round the lanes in the afternoon was also quiet but nice in the fine weather producing a Short-eared Owl on Long Bank, 17 Stock Doves, 4 Little Egrets, 3 Kestrels, a handful of Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings along Easington Straight and my first Butterfly of the year - a Peacock at Sammy's.

Reed Bunting

Song Thrush

3rd March

A lovely day throughout with plenty of sunshine and light winds so I spent all day with the nets at Kew and Church Field; ringing was decent (for the start of March anyway!), with 22 new birds trapped, highlighted by catching two Moorhens at first light with one in the house trap and one in the Heligoland trap – huge size difference between the two with the male being 120g heavier than the female, they were both 1st winter birds and its tempting to think they were migrants, due to head back to Scandinavia soon.   

Other birds caught comprised 7 Chaffinches (including a couple of very big, Scandinavian, adult males with wings of 95), 2 Greenfinches, a Goldfinch, a Robin, a Dunnock, 3 Song Thrush and 5 Great Tits (now’s the time when they start to move around).   Birds of note seen through the day also included a Firecrest briefly at the mouth of the Heligoland trap (the earliest ever spring migrant at Spurn by four days!), a Short-eared Owl in the afternoon, some good northward passage of Pink-footed Geese – I saw around 400 but the day’s total comprised 2,605, two Rook south, two Redwing, a Reed Bunting and 3 Linnets.

Moorhens

Tree Sparrow