22nd May

Grey skies and a spell of drizzly rain through the morning resulted in a nice little flurry of late migrants around the Bill area. Birding was hard going now that there's limited coverage and the trees are in full leaf, with the return from the Obs garden mist-nets suggesting that routine fieldwork was revealing a good deal less than was actually present, but numbers making the log included 33 Wheatears, 20 Chiffchaffs, 15 Spotted Flycatchers, 3 Reed Warblers, 2 Sedge Warblers and singles of Grey Wagtail, RobinRedstart, Blackcap and Garden Warbler. Swallows were also still on the move, with sample counts indicating that getting on for 200 per hour were heading through along West Cliffs once the rain petered out. Seawatching came up with singles of Great Skua and Arctic Skua off the Bill and 9 Black-tailed Godwits and a Great Northern Diver through over Ferrybridge/Chesil.

The odd few immigrant moths continue to appear, with overnight captures of singles of Dark Sword Grass and Bordered Straw at the Obs and 2 Silver Y at the Grove


Portland capped in cloud - 22nd May 2015 © Joe Stockwell