4th July

Some more unsettled weather with the wind whipping up through the day saw very little in the way of passerine migrants. The day was saved by a steady passage on the sea in the evening featuring over 100 Manx Shearwaters, a single Balearic Shearwater and a smattering of Common and Sandwich Terns. The morning seawatch had added only a single Bonxie to the total. 

The non-avian highlight of the day was the second Black-tailed Skimmer of recent days on one of the Obs garden ponds © Erin Taylor... 

...the first was on the same pond on 1st July © Martin Cade...

...Black-tailed Skimmers colonised these ponds for a few years during the 1990s when they were at times really abundant but the colony gradually fizzled out and since that time the species has only been a very infrequent stray to Portland.