21st May

A fly-by Bee-eater over the Obs around midday salvaged what had been looking to be another very lean day on the migrant front, with a handful of Chiffchaffs and singles of Yellow Wagtail, Wheatear, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher providing the only interest on the ground at the Bill where hirundines and Swifts never really got going in the numbers that might have been expected on a hot, sunny day; singles of Bar-tailed Godwit and Whimbrel were the only waders of note at Ferrybridge. For the most part the sea was a source of frustration, with an obvious passage of terns taking place so far off the Bill as to be barely resolvable - 64 commic terns were logged, along with a single Great Northern Diver; later in the day another strong movement of Manx Shearwaters developed, with sample counts at various times of >1000 per hour through of the Bill and >400 per hour off Chesil.

Do Bee-eaters always call when they're high overhead? - if they don't then we must miss dozens of them. Today's bird - like so many others we've logged over the years - would never have been spotted if it hadn't been calling: it didn't descend lower than several hundred metres over the Obs and didn't give the slightest indication that it was going to linger so was gone within seconds © Martin Cade: 

It's been a great spring for Manx Shearwaters with another well into four figure movement this evening - the sea was so glassy calm off Chesil that they cast a distinct shadow as they were labouring through inches off the water with no wind to give them assistance © Martin Cade: 

Trips on the Fleet Explorer glass-bottomed boat are currently affording some excellent tern viewing - these Little Terns and Sandwich Tern were photographed from one of the trips last week © Paul Marsh: 

Whimbrel continue to linger at Ferrybridge - this one was there a couple of evenings ago, with it and/or others now present for over a fortnight © Martin cade: