6th September

With precious little change in the weather the birding remained much as in recent days, with plenty of common migrants to entertain the burgeoning number of visitors but still bafflingly few scarce migrants and rarities. Today's haul in the slightly out of the ordinary stakes included an Ortolan Bunting over Top Fields and 2-3 Ospreys over the Bill, with local interest in the form of a Nightingale in the Obs Quarry, singles of Short-eared Owl, Kingfisher and Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Bill and a Little Ringed Plover over Weston, whilst a likely Barred Warbler heard calling in Top Fields would have qualified as the bird of the day had it have been clinched. The common migrant tally was certainly as varied as in the last few days, with Bill area totals that included the likes of 40-80 each of Yellow Wagtail, Wheatear, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff, and 20-30 each of Grey Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Redstart, Whinchat, Sedge Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher; among the lower totals there were 6 Pied Flycatchers and 5 each of White Wagtail and Grasshopper Warbler. Judging by reports from elsewhere many of these totals could have been at least tripled for the island as a whole.

Overnight mothing was again very busy, but with what breeze there was lacking any sort of southerly component immigrants were less numerous than might be hoped at this time of year. Totals from the Obs garden traps included 32 Rusty-dot Pearl, 22 Diamond-back Moth, 10 each of Rush Veneer and Silver Y, 4 Dark Sword Grass and singles of Marbled Yellow Pearl, Delicate and Dark Spectacle, together with 3 Red Admiral butterflies; single Olive-tree Pearls were notable additions to an otherwise similar tally in the garden traps at Sweethill and the Grove.




Osprey, Nightingale and Ortolan Bunting - Portland Bill, 6th September 2014 © Brett Spencer (Osprey) and Joe Cockram (Nightingale and Ortolan Bunting)