10th July

A reminder for Obs members that this year's AGM takes place this Saturday, 12th July; the agenda for the meeting is available on the Notices page.

Despite a brisk north-westerly which might have been expected to have taken the edge off the temperature it was feeling really quite scorching at times today, when there was hardly a cloud in the sky to diminish the strength of the mid-summer sun. Bird-wise, there was a signs of autumn passage really beginning to gather ground, with movement overhead particularly conspicuous through the morning. Passage into the wind over the Bill included 137 Sand Martins and 100 Swallows, with a good many more of both overhead elsewhere; a Whimbrel also passed over at the Bill, where yesterday's Blackcap lingered on. Passage on the sea at the Bill included 12 Common Scoter, 11 Mediterranean Gulls and a Balearic Shearwater, but today's commic terns - at least 40 were logged - had more of an air of lingering about them than was the case yesterday. The Mediterranean Gull build up continued at Ferrybridge, with 44 there today, whilst 28 Dunlin and a Sanderling made up the wader tally there.


Rosy-striped Knot-horn Oncocera semirubella - Portland Bill, 9th July 2014 © Martin Cade
 
...with a sad lack of interesting bird photos, we'll have to stick with the moths; Rosy-striped Knot-horn is another coastal special that's popular with visiting moth-trappers at this time of year.