Second time lucky!

After last weekend's extraordinary bad luck missing the bluethroat, when we saw that another male bluethroat was showing well at Portland this morning, we immediately rushed down there.

On the way, I saw my first sand martins and Mediterranean gull of the year as we drove past Radipole.

The bluethroat appeared soon after we arrived, and promptly moved to about 10 yards in front of us! It was a stunning sight (not really done justice by my photo!). This is remarkably the third bluethroat at Portland this week- there are only two in the rest of the country right now, and this male was certainly the most splendid of the three. Nearby, there were two female black redstarts and a sparrowhawk.

I have started a garden year list- my target for the year is 70. A grey heron that flew over today took me to 49 garden species this year.