18th April

A howling easterly gale really wasn't what we wanted to be greeted with at dawn and it was very quickly apparent there'd been almost no arrival of grounded migrants and - quite surprisingly - extremely little was moving at sea. The lingering Hoopoe at Suckthumb Quarry did at least provide some rarity interest for weekend visitors, but over and above that it was hard to find anything worth reporting on the ground bar the long-staying Firecrest still at the Obs; visible passage did get going, and for a time hirundines were whipping through along West Cliffs at a rate of around 600/hour. The sea was the day's big disappointment, with 8 Whimbrel, a Grey Plover and a Greenshank off Chesil and a Red-throated Diver off the Bill by far the best of some unproductive watching at the two sites.

The year's first Large White was at Blacknor.

The first dragonfly of the year - a Broad-bodied Chaser - was on the wing at the Obs.

Immigrant moths consisted of just singles of Dark Sword Grass and Silver Y at the Obs and a Diamond-back Moth at the Grove.



Hoopoe and Broad-bodied Chaser - Suckthumb Quarry and Portland Bill, 18th April 2015 © Dave Butcher (Hoopoe) and Glen Maddison (Broad-bodied Chaser)