October begun just as September had ended - quietly! The heavily overcast sky and slack breeze all but stopped overhead passage in its tracks and although it was a little more fruitful on the ground that only really applied to the likes of Stonechats, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs that were well-spread if nowhere especially numerous; a lingering Firecrest at the Obs provided the only minor highlight on the ground. Some sea passage included 128 Kittiwakes, 29 Balearic Shearwaters, 15 Black-headed Gulls and 7 Arctic Skuas through off the Bill.
This Spanish Dot Antigastra calalaunalis was the highlight from last night's moth-traps at the Obs. This is another moth that's been massively devalued since our first capture of one at the Obs on 10th October 1995 (...it was in the same trap as the third and fourth British Dark Mottled Willows!): at that time there had been fewer than ten British records of this weird, leggy pyralid, but by only a little over a decade later we trapped as many as 11 in 2006 alone; it's never again been as numerous as in 2006 but it is now a moth that's almost expected during periods of good migration © Martin Cade:
