As befits progress through August so variety continued to increase today, with Bar-tailed Godwit and Whinchat new for the season amongst a small flurry of arrivals on the land, Tree Pipit passage gathering momentum overhead and Balearic Shearwaters firmly back offshore in quantity. In lovely warm and quiet conditions the grounded and overhead numbers were far from huge but did include at the Bill 80 Sand Martins, 35 Tree Pipits, 25 Willow Warblers, 2 Pied Flycatchers and singles of Merlin, Marsh Harrier, Grey Wagtail and Garden Warbler; at Ferrybridge the Bar-tailed Godwit joined the currently slightly diminished numbers of commoner waders. Balearic Shearwaters piled through off the Bill for a while after dawn when 370 headed east in quick time before later some of these or others lingered offshore; 150 each of Manx Shearwater and Mediterranean Gull, 28 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 7 Arctic Skuas and 2 Great Skuas also passed by or lingered and a party of 20 Shags was the largest recorded so far this autumn.
Today was a Tree Pipit kinda day - nice! © Martin Cade:
After such a hitherto duff summer for mothing it's been good to have finally been greeted with traps full of moths on most recent mornings. Migration's picked up and has included a fair selection of scarcities if not a real killer rare and the variety of Portland less-frequents has been good - in the last few nights the latter have included the likes of Clouded Buff, Dark Spinach and Latticed Heath © Martin Cade:
