4th August

It's a bad job at this stage in the autumn when you're reduced to doing essential maintenance jobs by lunchtime, but 6 hours of catching absolutely nothing in the Obs garden mist-nets was plenty long enough for us to conclude that passage still hadn't got going. A lone Willow Warbler was the only grounded migrant making the list from the Bill area, with 25 Dunlin, 7 Sanderling and a Common Sandpiper providing a few additions from Ferrybridge. The sea remained worth attention, with a steady movement of Manx Shearwaters off the Bill all day (around 100 were logged in the few periods during which they were actually counted); 14 Balearic Shearwaters, 4 commic terns, 2 Great Skuas and an Arctic Skua also passed through there.



Common Blue and Wall Brown - Portland Bill, 4th August 2015 © Ken Dolbear
 
And finally, the answer to the poser we posted a couple of days ago: the two youngsters photographed in conflab in the Obs lounge were Grahame Walbridge and David Fisher. Bob Ford, who was very active then, as now, recognised them both immediately but we did receive plenty of other suggestions that were considerably less accurate! Many thanks to a combination of David, Grahame and Phil Round for sending us the photograph - there must be others out there that we'd love to see and post here for posterity.