25th July

With the mercury creeping another degree higher at its peak than yesterday birding was again hard work at times. That said, there were new arrivals to be seen, with at the Bill the likes of a steady passage of Swifts and hirundines overhead, 15 Black-headed Gulls, a Golden Plover and a Whimbrel also over and 7 Willow Warblers, 5 Sedge Warblers, 2 Garden Warblers and singles of Common Sandpiper, Yellow-legged Gull and Lesser Whitethroat on the ground; elsewhere a Pied Flycatcher was at Southwell. A Common Gull was an unseasonable visitor to Ferrybridge, where 80 Dunlin and singles of Little Ringed Plover, Redshank and Green Sandpiper were amongst the wader selection.

Overnight moth-trapping remained very busy, with another varied selection of dispersers making the list; the best of these at the Obs were 2 Vagrant Piecer Cydia amplana and singles of Reed Smudge Orthotelia sparganella, Yellow Pearl Mecyna flavalis, Marbled Yellow Pearl Evergestis extimalis, Chequered Pearl Evergestis pallidata and Dark Spinach. A notable feature of the last couple of night's mothing has been the unprecedented numbers of Four-spotted caught in the Obs traps, with totals of 27 yesterday and 18 today.

Common Gull and Green Sandpiper - Ferrybridge, 25th July 2014 © Pete Saunders

 

...and a couple more birds from yesterday at the Bill from Joe Stockwell - Yellow-legged Gull and Turnstones:

 

 

Finally, we've been almost overwhelmed with moths this week: the static traps have been fantastically busy and the weather conditions have been so good that we've been unable to resist getting out and sampling other sites with the portable kit. The local specials and migrants have been far too numerous to be able to cover in full here, but among the nice things on the wing Painted Neb Eulamprotes wilkella, at what's seemingly its only Dorset site at Ferrybridge, has been amongst the prettiest (photo © Joe Stockwell):