There was an encouraging hint from the Obs moth-traps of longer distance immigration underway, notably in the form of an Old World Webworm; singles of Ni Moth at the Obs and Striped Hawk-moth at St Peter's Church were perhaps more likely to have been locally bred.
Yellow-legged Gull, Old World Webworm and Nutmeg - Portland Bill, 29th August 2015 © Martin Cade
...traditionally, Portland Yellow-legged Gull records start to fizzle out towards the end of August so we were pleased to see this juvenile - now well advanced to first-winter plumage - at the Bill towards dusk this evening; we're not sure we actually have any records of confirmed first-winters during the late autumn/winter months at Portland, so what happens to all the Yellow-legged Gulls that arrive in southern England during the late summer - do they just move on into inland anonymity for the winter or do they head back south again?
Although the Old World Webworm is pretty obviously of relatively distant origin we were also intrigued to catch a peculiar sandy-coloured Nutmeg that bore a more than passing resemblance to the similarly-coloured individuals caught out of season during the winter influx of Levant Blacknecks and other rare immigrants some years ago; 2 very pale Delicates today (as yesterday's individual also was) also looked likely to have been of distant origin.