21st August

Just ticking over at a very low level today, with a late in the day Cory's Shearwater through off the Bill easily the highlight. Passerine interest at the Bill was pretty limited, with 30 Yellow Wagtails, 3 Tree Pipits, 2 Reed Warblers and a Pied Flycatcher the best amongst a few routine late August regulars; the lingering Marsh Harrier was also still about the island, popping up at least once at Blacknor. Waders fared little better, with 3 Knot newcomers at Ferrybridge. The Cory's Shearwater aside, the sea was relatively quiet, with no more than 40 Balearic Shearwaters logged off the Bill where a lone Great Skua also passed by.

These two Knot that came and went in quick time at Ferrybridge were poor compensation for another no-show by the American wader that surely must be on the cards for there right now © Pete Saunders:

This evening, by virtue of an after-tea run over to Lodmoor, we had a little flashback to a golden age of Weymouth birding in the late 70s and early 80s when it was possible during August to work the sedge beds on Lodmoor and chivvy out an Aquatic Warbler or two, count the multiples of Wood Sandpipers there - we forget which year it was but probably about 1977 when we logged Wood Sandpiper on every day during the month (up to a peak of eight if we remember rightly) and then cycle in to Radipole after tea to see the two or three Spotted Crakes that'd be showing nightly on the margins of the acres of mud exposed out from the old wooden bridge. Anyway, those halcyon days are long gone and Spotted Crake is now a sufficiently high-value bird that even one permitting no more than long-range views merits a trip over to Weymouth © Martin Cade: