Willow Warblers!!

 After the excitement of yesterday I figured the fun was probably done, that that would be the best of it. But the wind forecast for this morning was roughly similar so I hoped there'd still be a few migrants to justify my 5.50 arrival, although it was a few degrees cooler than yesterday and there hadn't been the pre-dawn rain.

Early indications were that a few Willow Warblers had arrived, and I was pleased to have twenty in the notebook before getting to the scrubby heaven/hell of Hordle Cliff.

I was in for a shock! The bushes on the undercliff there were alive with them, with several also enjoying the sun on the cliff side itself.

I have no idea how many were lurking in the denser stuff, with very few birds vocal, but it seemed every one of the more isolated bushes had at least a couple, and birds chased each other round the willows and sallied for flies from almost every clump.

I counted fifty along this 1.2km stretch: that's just the ones I could see or hear. There could easily have been hundreds lurking unseen.

But the best was yet to come. Back at the Barton undercliff I decided to check the entire 2.1 length as far west as I could go, always from the clifftop. Along here, where it's mostly more open and viewing more clear, I counted a further NINETY!!! In all today I had at least 160 along 4.7km of coast, almost all on the undercliff. I've never had a fall like it at Barton, and chances are I never will again. Aside from some of my better autumn vismig days, I've never had a birding spectacle like it there.

And there was other stuff too. Two Garden Warblers, a Sedge Warbler and a Reed Warbler evaded the camera (the latter two were patch year ticks), but one of the two Redstarts (until yesterday I'd not had a spring one on patch) allowed a photo of sorts 

What was presumably yesterday's Whinchat remained 

Two late Lapwings flew northeast

There were Wheatears of course (four of them)

And Whimbrels, mostly passing through, but also one hanging about on the cliff top.

Seven Yellow Wagtails came in off; 4 Gannets and 13 Common Scoter flew east offshore, although I didn't look that way as much as usual: I was just mesmerised by the little greeny yellow birds that had miraculously arrived en masse from halfway down an entirely different continent, having crossed a vast desert and two not insignificant seas.

Really blows the mind, and it was a total privilege to be a part of it.

A Top Morning

 A week or so ago I made the mistake of commenting to someone that I thought this spring had been pretty good. It had had a few decent days to break up the monotony I thought, although it's fair to say the comment was met with scepticism.

Cue doldrums!

Things ticked over, but nothing more. Since the start of the week I've taken a couple of days off patch, one morning getting into the Forest and one day actually preferring to get on top of work. 

Redstart in the New Forest

On patch I varied my routes a little, checking out the nightmarishly impenetrable undercliff scrub from below. Tempting as it is, I actually think it's better viewed from the clifftop.

But for all the talk of doldrums, it's actually been well populated with Willow Warblers this week, plus the odd Blackcap.

As the week progressed NE winds set in, which I have to confess I've never thought would be any good, but the Portland Obs sightings page was bigging them up, and, well, I think Martin Cade probably knows a bit more about such things than me!

And yesterday (Saturday) they were right, the birding was amazing. On Portland! 

It was OKish on patch, with a singing Garden Warbler, finally my first House Martin of the year, plenty more Willow Warblers, and a trickle of stuff offshore, but really only slightly above average for the time of year. To make it feel even more like I was missing out I was getting messages relaying news of a decent tern passage in The Solent, which was entirely eluding me. 

This had all clearly been punishment for me having had a very uncharacteristic lie-in, not getting to patch until 7.30, an hour and a half or more after sunrise. So, with similar winds forecast, there was no way I was going to let that happen this morning, especially when I woke to find it had recently rained.

Even with a 6.00 arrival however, I had missed sunrise, which is going to get increasingly harder to see from here on in.

Early impressions were that things weren't improving, but a message from Matthew Barfield to say he had a Grasshopper Warbler reeling in Becton Bunny, which I'd like to walked through fifteen minutes earlier, meant at least something new had arrived. So I turned round, walked back, and of course by the time I got there it had shut up. Wanting to have the sea in sight as much as possible today I didn't give it long: this is the only bit of the coast path where the sea is out of view.

A close incoming Yellow Wagtail was nice here, my fifth of the week, which would normally constitute a good spring tally (some springs I've struggled to get it at all in Hampshire). It was to be the start of an unprecedented morning for them for me: thirteen in total came in off, making 17 for the year. I've tried hard to photograph one.

Lots of empty sky shots 

The occasional fuzzy little yellow blob

But finally the camera got its focus sorted, and I did likewise with my aim and after a big old crop I had an identifiable Yellow Wagtail pic!

I even managed a flock of four

OK, a distant flock of four

Another message from Matthew B, and he'd had another singing Gropper. But this one far enough away that I couldn't be tempted! And a good job too, because fifteen minutes later I had a reeling Grasshopper Warbler of my own!! On private land to the north of the coastal path, so no chance of getting a look, and then after some pretty full on singing it went silent, or perhaps moved a little further away. Either way, I'm more than happy to count it heard only.

Before this I'd had a small group of Arctic Terns head east, with a few Whimbrels on the move too, including a group of three that accompanied a Bar-tailed Godwit heading off inland.

A few Willow Warblers were seen, fewer than in previous mornings, and the odd Mediterranean Gull, and then it was a much-anticipated first of the year in the shape of a Whinchat.

Any spring Whinchat is a bonus I reckon

Decent birds kept coming. A Red Kite drifted west:

And a thermalling group of two Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk were being mobbed by a Raven, which was, as with the kite, just my second record of the year.

A few Swallows and Meadow Pipits, and a couple of House Martins, came in off, and then as I was getting back near the car at the end of a brilliant 5½ hour session a brown bird on the undercliff shivered into view as a female Redstart, my first spring patch record.

There was just time for the undercliff's male Dartford Warbler to put in a nice display flight to bring the morning's total species to a new patch personal best of 64.

OK, so it's not Portland. It's not even Titchfield Haven. But it's probably the best spring morning I've ever had on MY patch.

Wheatears

Just because they're my favourite bird (British anyway), they're so photogenic, and this morning was excellent for them on patch, with at least 18 present.

All pics taken this morning.

Near Wheatear

Far Wheatear

Slightly Less Near Wheatear

Slightly Less Far Wheatear

Wheatear on the Deck

Wheatear on a Trig Point

Wheatear on a Sign

Wheatears on a Rubbish Pile