27th April

Quite an odd day with a decent enough arrival at the Bill, where a steady stream of birds were dropped from a crystal clear sky by the strength of the chilly north-easterly, but few reports of any quantity of migrants anywhere else. Sad to relate that these days the Turtle Dove at the Bill - most likely a lingerer from the weekend - merited top spot in the scarcity stakes, but a Curlew Sandpiper at Ferrybridge was a particularly good spring record, whilst yet further singles of Firecrest and Ring Ouzel showed up at the Bill and Verne Common respectively. At the Bill, numbers included 200 Willow Warblers, 40 Blackcaps and 20 Redstarts, with lower totals of many of the other expected migrants; a single Pied Flycatcher there and another at Blacknor were the best of the second tier oddities. The sea showed precious few signs of livening up, with singles of Red-throated Diver and Arctic Skua the highlights from an otherwise very mundane list from the Bill.

The drop in temperature overnight and the chilly wind by day restricted immigrant lepidoptera interest to a handful of Diamond-back Moth, Dark Sword Grass and Silver Y in the moth-traps and a few Painted Ladys on the wing during the day.





Curlew Sandpiper, Garden Warbler and Painted Lady - Ferrybridge and Portland Bill, 27th April 2015 © Joe Stockwell (Curlew Sandpiper settled), Martin Cade (Curlew Sandpiper flying) and Martin King (Garden Warbler and Painted Lady)