12th July

There's beginning to be a slightly different feel to the weather with a good deal more cloud in the sky at times and the edge certainly taken off the heat of the last couple of weeks. A miscellaneous selection at the Bill included 25 Mediterranean Gulls, 12 Common Scoter, 7 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Manx Shearwaters, 2 Yellow-legged Gulls and a family party of Shelducks offshore and 70 Swallows, 2 Sand Martins and singles of Common Sandpiper, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Chiffchaff on the land; at Southwell 2 Shelduck, 2 Mallard and a Yellow-legged Gull all flew north off East Cliffs. Mediterranean Gulls increased to 128 at Ferrybridge where 10 Dunlin, 2 Black-tailed Godwits and singles of Redshank and Sandwich Tern were also logged.

A party of 10 or more Bottle-nosed Dolphins were off the Bill for a second day.

Immigrant butterflies included 2 Painted Ladys and 2 Clouded Yellows at the Bill.

On a night when moth immigration/dispersal tailed off quite noticeably Diamond-back Moth (29) and Marbled Piercer (25) topped the tally at the Obs.

We keep imagining that one of the parties of mid-summer Black-tailed Godwits that drop in briefly at Ferrybridge will be Continental limosa birds but, like all the others in recent times, today's pair looked to be pretty standard Icelandic islandica birds © Pete Saunders:


This morning's Great Spotted Woodpecker making use of the tallest 'tree' at the Bill © Martin Cade:


Clouded Yellow at the Bill today © Martin Cade:


And a truly awful image - the birds were a good mile and a half distant - of what as far as we know was a unique event off the Bill: this family party of Shelducks - the pair and two tiny youngsters - were spotted drifting slowly from east to west well offshore this morning; we lost them soon afterwards and presumed they'd gained speed with the tide and headed off into Lyme Bay, only to discover later from members of the public that in fact they'd eventually come offshore on East Cliffs below the Obs. Quite where they'd originated from can only be guessed at: the harbour breakwaters are perhaps the best bet but they were so far offshore that somewhere like the Purbeck coast seems a plausible possibility © Martin Cade: