I had a text last night from Phil Saunders, the other main St Aldhelms Patch Birder, saying that the forecast was for still conditions & early morning mist at St Aldhelms and those conditions had proved good for the site in his experience. I set the alarm for 05:00 to allow time for a pre-dawn breakfast. The pre-dawn weather hadn't turned out as forecasted with miserable light to steady rain and it wasn't misty in Swanage. But St Aldhelms is higher and the mist can be very local along the Purbeck coast. I had another cup of tea & decided to see whether the rain would stop. It did about thirty minutes after dawn. By the time I was halfway to St Aldhelms, I was driving in the mist. This was a lot better.
Initially, it was very quiet at St Aldhelms, but after a half hour I had found a Garden Warbler. Not a surprising species in the neighbouring valleys, but at least it was an improvement on two Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler and the first Whitethroat and I don't see many Garden Warblers at St Aldhelms. As the visibility started to lift, I had a few more Warblers around the Trev's Quarry area, but there was no improvement on the range of Warbler species. However, the first Wheatear and a brief Redstart sighting had added some migrant variety. I decided to push on & try the Shrike Bushes in the Pier Bottom Valley, but this only added a few more Whitethroats. Finally, as I overlooked the small pools on the mudslip at the bottom of Pier Bottom, I found a Reed Warbler, some more Whitethroats and Chiffchaffs. There were also three Mallards skulking on the pools, which always an erratic species at St Aldhelms. Next I heading up the steps to the Coastguards Lookout above Quarry Ledge. A few Wheatears in this area was more promising. It looked like today's migrants were really staying coastal, instead of doing their usual bounce quickly inland along hedges routine. Checking the bushes on Quarry Ledge produced another Willow Warbler and finally a Pied Flycatcher.
Pied Flycatchers are always nice to see, but when you are doing an Isle of Purbeck Year List and have reached the start of September without seeing one, they are especially special to see. They are a species I expect to bump into locally, without making any effort, but I've been struggling to connect this year. I reckoned that I only had another week before the main window started to close. What I didn't want to do was to have to start looking at good Pied Flycatcher spots locally, as often these aren't the best places for some of the more interesting potential migrants.
On the walk back to the car, I added singles of Golden Plover and Spotted Flycatcher to the day list. In the end, I had seen a reasonable selection of migrants. While I hadn't found the Dotterel, Melodious Warbler or Ortolan I was really hoping for, the Pied Flycatcher was magnified out of all proportion as it would stop me having to focus on seeing one for the Year List. It took me to 185 for the Historic Isle of Purbeck Year List.