10th July

A significant downturn in the weather that saw heavy cloud streaming in from the west arrived far too late to spoil what had otherwise been another day of largely unbroken sunshine. A dispersing Blackcap showed up at the Obs and the Dunlin total at Ferrybridge crept up to 17 but, once again, most of what numbers there were were garnered from the sea, with 90 Manx Shearwaters, 37 Common Scoter, 5 each of Mediterranean Gull and Black-headed Gull, and singles of Little Egret, Great Skua and Sandwich Tern through off the Bill.

Overnight moth interest included a couple of quality scarce immigrants in the form of a Bedstraw Hawkmoth at Reap Lane and a Splendid Brocade at the Obs, although overall numbers and variety continued to fall away.

The first juvenile Common Terns of the season - presumably from Lodmoor? - showed up at Ferrybridge today © Pete Saunders:

It's the season for dispersing juvenile warblers and we were surprised after such a relatively benign late spring and summer to see just how conspicuously fault-barred the tail of this morning's Blackcap was © Martin Cade:

Moth interest continues to tick along, with decent quality immigrants/strays turning up in the traps on a nightly basis just at the moment. The Bedstraw Hawkmoth was the first for a few years and the 15th ever for the island. Splendid Brocade is a relative newcomer to these shores but it's already edged ahead of the hawkmoth in the standings, with this year's 4 taking the all-time total to 18 © John Lucas/Martin Cade: