5th August

A quieter day in the nets was reflected in the day totals with little variety at obs proper. The sea provided the only real passage with 16 Balearic Shearwaters and 13 Manxies. Ferrybridge fared a little better with seven Sanderlings, two Redshank and singles of Black-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel and Curlew.

We were really excited to spot this moth settled on the underside of the perspex of one of the Obs garden moth-traps this morning and guessed that it might be a Lesser Pearl Sitochroa verticalis - something that we'd often been concerned about overlooking; sure enough, once potted that's what it turned out to be and we could indeed see that if just the upperside had been seen it could easily have been passed off in a busy trap as a European Corn-borer or one of the Anania Pearls. Lesser Pearl evidently occurred on the island in the Victorian era but, in common with much of its former range, it's long gone from here as a resident, indeed the Dorset Moth Group website suggests it hasn't been recorded in Dorset since the Second World War © Martin Cade:



Three of the seven Sanderling present at Ferrybridge ©Pete Saunders: