5th June

Another nice miscellany of migrants/strays to report today as back-up to the continuing presence of the Great Spotted Cuckoo. The Bill area got the best of the coverage and returned totals of 10 Reed Warblers, 5 Spotted Flycatchers, 3 Chiffchaffs, 2 Short-eared Owls and singles of Common Cuckoo, Mistle Thrush, Wheatear, Blackcap and Willow Warbler on the land and 23 Common Scoter, 4 Mute Swans, 3 Mediterranean Gulls and an Arctic Skua through on the sea. Elsewhere, another Spotted Flycatcher passed through at Blacknor, 24 Common Scoter and 3 Sanderling passed through off Chesil and a Curlew Sandpiper was new in at Ferrybridge.

Immigrant moth interest really only concerned Diamond-back Moths, of which there looked to be another surge overnight: individual mv trap totals got up to around the 200 mark with, for example, a total of 946 in the 5 traps in the Obs garden, whilst numbers by day had clearly increased again.

The island still awaits the Painted Lady influx underway elsewhere, with reports today of no more than odd ones and twos at several sites.


Mute Swans - Portland Bill, 5th June 2016 © Martin Cade