Portlnad bill and Weymouth

I had a nice two days birding around the Bill and Weymouth. There was nto much around in the way of migrants. Highlights
Garganey - 4, 3 males and a female. At radiploe lake
Hobby- Flying through Radipole lakes
Hooded merganser - yep, the Hoodies still at Radipole sleeping most of the time. But very close.
Marsh harrier- Radipole
Pom skua - Off the bill, in seawatch
Arctic skua- Off the Bill
`Manx shearwater - Off the bill
Little gull - 2 of the Bill
Red throated diver - 2 off the Bill
Great grey shrike - Wyke down



So it was a nice trip, but missed out on several bird species by a matter of minutes (pied fly). Also dipped on Hoopoe.

The famous Hoodie at Radipole

Great grey shrike - Finally after 5 dipps!

Another wave of migrants

This morning there was a small wave of migrants.
6 Swallow (1,2,1,2)
3 Common Whitethroat - maybe more, singing. Great to see them back!
2 Sand martin
Willow warbler -  calling in a dense clump of scrub. Sadly not a  good view!

So three new birds on my patch year list. Now an impressive total of 96 species and 104 points.
The plants are now coming in to bloom and summer cant be far off.

One of the few Whitethroats

The patches only Gorse now coming in to bloom!

First few summer migrants at patch

The first few are trickling through but hopefully in the next few days will have some major movements.
Chiffchaffs are the only common summer migrants now with plenty singing around patch.
1 Sedge warbler was on patch shortly on the 10th of April. This was the first for Hampshire this year.
1 Swallow on the 11th of April and 2 on the 12th.
1 Reed warbler on the 12th, another early record.

Florida

The trip ended in a great list of 116 species.
Highlights
Florida scrub jay
Red cockaded woodpecker
Brown headed nuthatch
Least tern
Bachmans sparrow
Swallow tailed kite


So it was an amazing trip! Red cockaded woodpeckers were the highlight along with the scrub jays of which i got great views!

Tricoloured heron

Turkey vulture

Limpkin

Eurasian wigeon

Black and white warbler

Female hooded mergansers

Ring necked duck ( found only after going through photos originally thought to be  a scaup until re look!)

Soft shell turtle

Florida scrub jay (florida's only endemic bird)

F S jay

Red bellied woodpecker

Male cardinal

The threatened red cockaded woodpecker