8th June

The year's first Quail that was flushed from a path edge in Top Fields was a nice back-up for the lingering Great Spotted Cuckoo that continued to provide the rarity interest. Migrant-wise, the Bill area produced a few odds and ends that are now heading both ways: the 6 singing Reed Warblers were surely arriving but the 2 Mediterranean Gulls, 2 Black-headed Gulls and singles of Curlew and Blackcap all looked to be departing (the gulls and Curlew are more or less on cue, whilst evidenced by the presence of a well-formed brood patch the Blackcap was yet another - the sixth in recent days - failed breeder; additional singles of Mediterranean Gull and Black-headed Gull were new in at Ferrybridge.

The immigrant lepidoptera situation hardly changed: Diamond-back Moth numbers did look to have dropped slightly by day, whilst moth-trap totals included 479 in one trap at Sweethill and 750 from five traps at the Obs; Painted Ladies were numerous without being abundant and Silver Ys were very numerous around valerian at dusk but had hardly featured in the moth-traps (just 6 in the Obs traps).