A quiet day doing some birding on Portland for early spring migrants. Best seen a Sand Martin, Chiffs, Meadow Pipits & several pairs of Stonechats. Nice hearing Skylarks in full song. Excellent views of Fulmars off the bill. No sign of any Wheatear for us. No sign of Little Gull at Dorchester WM.
Last session for November with 67 ringed including 4 new Yellowhammer & plenty of Reed Bunting. Tristis type Chiff, 2 Firecrest best from the tit flocks. Notable number of Mipits, Stonechats & Skylarks in the Rewilding fields. Vizmig; Snipe, Lapwing & Golden Plover & mix finch flocks over.
Lovely productive mornings ringing produced nice mix of usual species for this time of year along with another Cirl Bunting. A 2nd bird also present in the rewilding fields. Several wintering Chiff, crests and a few thrushes made for enjoyable session.
Fantastic day birding on Durlston head with smashing views of two Pallas’s Warblers. One showing well in woods west of the castle and 2nd bird in sycamores towards lighthouse area mobile with tits/crest flock. Excellent vismig with Snow Bunting, Woodlark, Bramblings, Redpolls and 2 Black Redstarts.
Pallas's Warbler just trapped in the Crown Estate Field
Another busy day ringing on site 06am-3.30pm. 108 ringed & 3 controls! Control Firecrest (RCV), Chiff( RVL)+ Dutch Arnhem ringed Chiff (AVY). Outstanding vizmig over with 1000’s Woodpigeon, 100+Chaff & Thrushes. Small No of Brambling, Redpolls, Buntings
/Pipits. 3 Hawfinch & group of 5 Woodlark.
Well done Ian 👏
Super mornings ringing with a female Cirl Bunting trapped and ringed, 1st record for the site. Nice mix of Buntings, Crests and Tit flock ringed. A Pallas’s Warbler seen and heard very briefly 10am near ringing site didn’t show up in a net and no further sign, another first for here.
Sorry for the late news, ridiculously busy first couple of hours so not had time to post a photo of the Black-faced Bunting trapped in the Crown Estate Field on the first net round of the day - ta to Duncan Walbridge for this pic
Productive mornings ringing with 18 Reed bunting, 15 Lesser Redpoll and 5 Firecrest. Plenty of chiff and goldcrest still arriving. Single Ring Ouzel flushed early am setting nets. Vizmig over included Hawfinch, Brambling and 100+ Redpoll and a late Redstart seen in horse paddock
Well done Ian Congrats ! 🎉👏🥳🍻🍾
LITTLE BUNTING trapped this morning at East Fleet, nr Weymouth, Dorset. With thanks to Sarah F. for a couple of the photos. Also trapped: 2 Cetti's, 1 Reed Warbler and 1 Dartford.
A nice arrival of Goldcrest this morning with 42 ringed out of 113 ringed. Plenty of roving tit flocks around today and an increase in Robins and Thrushes. A Yellow browed W heard in non-ringable area didn’t materialise in nets. Overall a productive mid October session. Hawfinch/ROuzel vizmig over.
Thanks Luke. I’m well chuffed. I’m doing a lot of ringing on buntings at moment which has been exceptionally good this year for them so hopefully get a few more controls this winter 🤞
That would be fantastic if it is. It’s already on DEMON. AAD3590, ringed 25th Feb 25.
Another busy mornings ringing in the Rewilding Fields produced 115 ringed including 58 Chiff and 27 Reed Bunting. A nice mix of species today also included Yellowhammer, late Garden Warbler and control Reed Bunting (AAD) were the highlights of the morning. Some good vizmig over
Been a busy few days ringing on site. Todays session, 06-14:00pm, 165 ringed including 23 Reed Bunting, 20 Goldcrest and 7 Firecrest. Big fall of Chiff again ringed in good numbers. Good vizmig over with several flocks of Crossbill ( 30+), 50+ each of Redpoll & Siskin and 2 Brambling west.
Super start to October with 164 birds ringed from
The Rewilding Field nets, including 11 Reed Bunting, 8 Stonechats along with nice cast of warblers including late Gropper,Sedge, Whitethroat,15 Firecrest,12 Goldcrest & another strong passage of Chiffs. Bonus Nuthatch,Yellowhammer & retrap Kestrel.
Yellow-browed Bunting trapped, ringed and released at the Swannery. It's flown to the hedge which runs alongside the Swannery grounds and the bird may be viewable from the permissive path heading west from Grove Lane.
The last few days has seen a huge movement of Chiffchaff here in West Dorset, most birds seen moving East mid morning through to early afternoon. Today a much quieter session with 30+Chiff ringed takes me to over 200 ringed since last week. Ringing weekend so interesting to see if numbers continue….
A big day for Meadow Pipits on site with 70 ringed. A fantastic mix of other species including Whitethroat, Sedge, Reed, Garden, Willow W, Gropper & Tree Pipits. Big arrival of Blackcap & Chiff. Large Hirundine flocks with several Swallows/House Martins ringed in the afternoon
Blackcap season has arrived. Good numbers ringed over the past few mornings. Increase in Chiffchaff, Robins and roving tit flocks now on site . See what the week ahead has in store. #birdringing
BOOTED WARBLER trapped in the Crown Estate Field
AQUATIC WARBLER!!! Still can’t believe we caught this stunner at Carey this morning! Made it worthwhile giving it a go between weather fronts. The bird was interestingly a good weight of 15g! #ukbirding
Melodious Warbler - France 2025
Bang on for this time of year, a juvenile Barred Warbler, trapped and ringed in #Culverwell this morning. #birdringing @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social
Wryneck just trapped in the Crown Estate Field
Very productive mornings ringing. Despite windy forecast turned out very calm on site and good numbers of Blackcaps on the move. 18 new Tree Pipits, singles of Grasshopper W, Garden W, Whitethroat, Sedge & Reed Warbler. Chiff starting to increase slowly and acros easing off now.
Stanford Reservoir - the ringing group deliver again. In crappy conditions with low bird numbers a 1st for the site & for Northants - BARRED WARBLER. Well deserved for the dedicated efforts of the group in their 50th year ringing at the site. Haven’t sweared so much for a while!!
Aquatic warbler trapped and ringed this morning, good session with over 100 birds, mostly sedge warbler and reed warbler
