8th August

Another little flurry of migrants today although after a very clear night the numbers weren't up to yesterday's mark. The Bill area got most of the passerine/overhead coverage, which turned up 25 Willow Warblers, 10 Wheatears, 3 Sedge Warblers and singles of Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat on the ground and a strong but rather brief movement of hirundines and singles of Greenshank and Common Sandpiper overhead; 2 Balearic Shearwaters were also again lingering offshore there. Ferrybridge came up with the rest of the numbers, with 6 Sanderling and singles of Curlew Sandpiper, Greenshank and Common Gull amongst around 100 each of Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Mediterranean Gull.

After very quiet conditions overnight the moth-traps were busy but immigration didn't feature at anything more than a ticking-over level; a single Dark Spinach at the Obs was the best of the 'non-locals'.



Curlew Sandpiper - Ferrybridge, 8th August 2015 © Pete Saunders
 
...new arrivals on the wader front weren't too much of a surprise after a night when random 'hearings' included 3 Green Sandpipers over Ferrybridge during a moth-trapping session and a flock of Redshanks over the Obs during the compiling of last evening's blog update:
 


Also today we received a rather lovely selection of images from Will Langdon who'd been staying with us for a few days this week with friends from The Minors Facebook group; amongst these there was a cracking 'in habitat' photo of Chalkhill Blues on West Cliffs:


...a Glow Worm at Verne Common:


...and a Beech-green Carpet - at least in Dorset terms, a Portland-endemic - also at Verne Common: