4th June

Just a small selection of fairly routine late migrants to report today: 3 Chiffchaffs, 2 each of Reed Warbler and Blackcap, and singles of Hobby and Spotted Flycatcher at the Bill, a Yellow Wagtail over Blacknor and 17 Sanderling at Ferrybridge.

A bumper catch of moths at the Obs included a Many-lined - the first island record for 12 years; the accompanying tally of more routine fare was a less than impressive 7 Diamond-back Moth, 2 each of Rusty-dot Pearl and Silver Y, and singles of Dark Sword Grass and Gold Spot. Elsewhere, there was a noteworthy catch of 9 Orange Footman at the Grove.

For a while in the early/mid 2000s Portland was quite favoured with Many-lined records - today's specimen was our 9th out of a national total of c48 since the species fizzled out as a breeding resident of the Fens in the 19th century © Martin Cade:


The relatively poorly worked north of the island continues to throw up surprises in the moth line: in a rather round about way we received word over the weekend of a mystery larval web on blackthorn at King Barrow Quarry that on investigation today turned out, as had been suggested, to be a nest of Small Eggars; at the time of the first and hitherto only record for the island of an adult attracted to one of the Obs moth-traps last year we speculated that it'd be unlikely that Small Eggar would colonise Portland since the females would find Portland Harbour an insurmountable barrier - what do we know about anything? © Martin Cade: