Immigrant moths featured quite well at the Obs, where 26 Silver Y, 17 Rusty-dot Pearl, 11 Rush Veneer, 3 Gem, 2 Olive-tree Pearl and singles of Vestal, Gem, Streak, Dark Sword Grass, Cosmopolitan and Red Sword Grass were caught overnight.
leucistic Goldfinch and Yellow-legged Gull - Portland Bill, 4th November 2015 © Martin Cade
...why are sub-adult Yellow-legged Gulls so rare at Portland? Whilst juveniles and adults are relatively frequent in their appropriate seasons it's really unusual to see any of the in-between plumages like today's second-winter; do the juveniles largely disappear back down south and not return until they're grown-up?
Whilst we assume that many of the Goldcrests passing through in autumn will have come from or via Scandinavia it's exciting to just occasionally get some tangible proof of that - this Swedish-ringed bird trapped at Culverwell this morning is only the second such recovery at Portland:
...in fact just recently Culverwell has been rather kind to us on the ringing recovery front, since on our last visit last week we came across this Jersey-ringed Goldfinch:
Finally, a couple of last night's moths; after long being considered a pretty top-notch rarity here, Red Sword Grass has lately become a tolerably frequent late autumn visitor:
...in contrast, the Streak remains a high quality moth here - we haven't checked yet but seem to remember that this is only the fourth island record:
