5th June

Land birding took a back seat as a fierce little Atlantic depression swept through and introduced an unseasonable storm today. Manx Shearwaters featured all day off the Bill, where sample counts of getting on for 300 an hour at times suggested the day total wouldn't have been far short of 2000; singles of Sooty Shearwater and Balearic Shearwater also passed by but there was precious little else of note. The only other reports were of a Mediterranean Gull off Chesil and 18 Sanderling and 6 Dunlin at Ferrybridge.

Flaming June it was not, with the sea whipped into a boiling frenzy once the wind topped gale force during the evening © Martin Cade:

In slightly better conditions during the afternoon we'd managed to be in the wrong spot at the right moment - at the Obs instead of the Bill tip - when the Sooty Shearwater passed through amongst a group of Manx; such are the resolving powers of even 'ordinary' camera equipment these days that we just about managed to get some record shots of it at what has to be getting on for a mile range: