just a BNGrebe off the bench, slav grebe toward bincleaves, couple GND, possible BTDiver off sandsfoot. BTDiver portland castle and a couple of GNDiver. mostly birds horribly distant in choppy water. hopefully my virus is fading to enable more trips out now! preferably without rain!

birds had dispersed back in the harbour today, just a couple of GND off portland castle and maybe 3 off hamm beach and a BNG too, all distantly. main novelty was the first dabchick i have seen for a while at osprey quay

this distant individual caught the eye as a potential contrasty BTDiver until you had a closer look

at least 7, probably 9 GNDivers off portland castle today.

has anyone seen any photos or know who put out the slav grebe & BT diver since the new year, there is a skinny GNDiver with a lot of white along the flank and a couple of pretty small poorly marked GCGrebe but had a very good look in admittedly slightly choppy conditions with no joy yesterday.

@support.bsky.team when i try to age verify to enable messaging the link you e-mail comes up as a threat so nothing connects, please advise!

a couple of GND off the tourist information centre and another distantly off hamm beach as was a BNGrebe, disappointing considering how far you could see in calm bright conditions.

whilst seeing martin and dawn out and about today was the best thing, fluking a bottlenose dolphin entirely way out of the water was next best, opposite the sailors return,

at the third time of asking got a record shot of one of the kingfishers opposite the sailors return after missing off the tourist centre and also the sailing academy car park. unfortunately just after martin adlam left.

never did post these from christmas morning, santa failed to deliver anything despite helpful conditions but enjoyed seeing the med gull feeding frenzy, so the E obviously delivered for someone!

i do wonder if the wind picking up ENE will be enough to blow the harbour birds in close at hamm beach christmas day morning, not the best of timing for most folk but i will certainly be going and having a look. only seen it happen once before so no gimme but must be a chance

plenty of other birds enjoying the flies off the washed in vegetation in church ope cove, 1cy grey wagtail the pick of them but stonechat, rock pipit, pied wagtail and wren were knocking about and could hear a chiffchaff in the background. surprisingly no butterflies at all.

felt a bit better today and my first male black redstart of the winter was a nice lift.

managed to dodge the black redstarts again despite hearing one, great to watch the portland castle goosander hunting and a GND there with two more off hamm beach. not sure if this one has an eel or pipefish. oddest spectacle was an early fulmar return circling over chesil cove and fortuneswell

i made the mistake of stopping the video just before the portland castle goosander went into full chase mode and caught a fish. quite impressively powerful birds compared to the RBM we get plenty of in the harbour both in flight and in the water

also had these two pale bellied brent geese at pirates cove yesterday that appear to be different birds to the recent portland bill ones

twitched @luvaducksbutt.bsky.social (also luvawheatear) desert wheatear, ta. always ID wary of these but looks like a couple of yellowhammer just W of the caravan park where i was expecting cirls to be more likely. brett's 4x barwits were at pirates cove.

a few local ones today, 3x little egret osprey quay. this dbbrent juv has been on its own a few days off the causeway but seems ok, 2x grey plover ferrybridge and a shag

bit of an odd sighting 2x avocet out in the middle of the harbour drifting around with a seal (grey by the looks) for company

Avocet pair and seal, probably grey out in portland harbour, in line with tatanyk ship viewed from smallmouth area

good to see the mergs back at portland castle (6x) and off billy winters (c.16x), best sighting was a small tort blown between quiddles n cove house inn, pattern showing through outer wing in light. no sign of any black redstarts surprisingly

one of the two black necked grebe in the harbour

one of the better looking moffs i've seen, this crimson speckled eventually settled not far from the bench near the sailing club, was quite surprised how butterfly like it's flight was and didn't realise what it was until it settled.

still happily munching through seed

a wall brown on the wing up at verne common 3rd gen?

dartford warbler above verne common

A dartford in gorse above jailhouse cafe sign at bend N side of verne common

plenty of butterflies around but no sign of any 2nd gen silver studded blues at kingbarrow, a probable 3rd gen holly blue there was the only blue seen

the wryneck found a nice supply of ants by the looks, neck doing what it is meant to.

the barleycrates wryneck showed well eventually. nothing else of note despite almost 50 chiffs at the rn cem, apart from that a couple of blackcaps around the verne as good as it got!

@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social the glossy ibis was seen by a couple sea watching at the obelisk, seemed to be very competent birders so hard to think it was an error.

nice to see a few migrants around the island again, butterflies coming in off too, one clouded yellow at the bill tip

a brief appearance of a grey seal at chesil cove is quite common.

the GBBG were in their element today, dogfish & more unusually a rack of lamb were on the menu. gather conger eels had been washed up too!

to say conditions were not ideal for taking snaps would be a massive understatement! just glad to get the 5x grey phalarope in one frame.

1 of the phalaropes back fairly close off the cove inn

Arctic skua hanging around harrassing kittiwakes, grey seal earlier, not much else in the cove

At least, probably precisely 5x grey phalarope, drifting from cove inn, N toward the fisherman

a couple of moribund looking juv gannets in the cove

sabines gull at chesil cove

this unfortunate sickly presumed manx shearwater looking to be on its way out and a GBBGull likely put it out of its misery. had a couple of distant rear view what appeared to be glossy ibis but really quiet in the cove with just the normal variety of gannet plumages.

quite a few painted lady around mid island after twitching the warbler but nothing better than a wheatear in the way of birds.

a few of the grey phalarope

grey phalarope doing a bit of spinning in chesil cove before gradually drifting down opposite the skate park

slim pickings today, clouded yellow at crown estate fields and redstart at reap lane barns

Male redstart in horse field behind hump but generally grim!

little stint, grey plover, knot, redshank ferrybridge, still some sanderling in amongst the dunlin & ringed plover. half doz wheatear n single clouded yellow

20+ sanderling in a wide range of plumage at ferrybridge, 5x sarnie terns dropped in, noted a fat dunlin. no sign of the knot but the barwit was there on the way through. fleet was dead bar the osprey but nice to see a sturdier walkway where the caravan park had caused a landslip with their piping!

orange swift moth just landed next to me, safely released back outside!

at least a couple of peregrine over the back yard just now, presumably a youngster being schooled, the noise from the gulls had me looking for an osprey (which i guessed i could have missed)