13th July

In a shake up from yesterday, the morning was gloriously warm and breeze-free and slowly descended into a wet and windy evening. Some more signs of  wader passage included the first autumn Little-ringed Plover, three Black-tailed Godwits and a single Curlew at Ferrybridge. Passerine migration continues at a slow trickle with low double figures of Sand Martins, the second dispersing Grey Wagtail of the autumn, and a smattering of the lingering Phylloscs. The sea produced a couple of points of interest including four Little Egrets in off, singles of Arctic and Great Skua, a lone Balearic Shearwater, the usual selection of Common Scoters and Mediterranean Gulls in small numbers and 2 Yellow-legged Gulls consorting with the now much diminished gull flocks; a third Yellow-legged Gull also dropped in at Ferrybridge.

It was certainly a day of two halves: the Black-tailed Godwits at Ferrybridge were bathed in the lovely soft sunlight of a millpond-calm dawn but by evening the Yellow-legged Gull there was being buffeted by the stiff breeze that preceded an impending downpour © Pete Saunders (the godwits) and Martin Cade (the gull): 





Moth interest has dwindled away since the heady days of the Silver Barred and Bright Wave so some minor signs of dispersal kicking in again were more than welcome: Pine Hawkmoth and Gorse Knot-horn Pempelia genistella were both less than annual captures at the Obs overnight © Martin Cade: