Paul, Pete and I joined about 400 others at Osprey Quay in Portland Harbour to see Brunnich's Guillemot. A forest of telescopes were rendered redundant when it appeared so close to the quayside that you sometimes needed to lean over to see it! The first record of this arctic breeder in southern Britain. A Black Guillemot was a bonus and we followed that up with a Common Guillemot in Chesil Cove.
Portland Harbour in winter sunshine was superb: Great Northern and Black-throated Divers, lots of grebes and sea ducks including 3 Red-necked Grebes, 7 Slavonian Grebes, 16 Black-necked Grebes and a Long-tailed Duck. Most numerous were the Red-breasted Mergansers which numbered in the hundreds.
We spent the afternoon walking through squally showers to see an immaculate second winter Glaucous Gull. 3 Snow Buntings were a bonus. The day finished in glorious sunshine...
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