2nd July

Nothing much changing with either the weather or the birding. The sea provided all the news from the Bill where 50 Manx Shearwaters, 15 Common Terns, 10 Common Scoter, 2 each of Black-headed Gull and Sandwich Tern, and singles of Mediterranean Gull and Arctic Skua made the list. Elsewhere there were 11 Mediterranean Gulls and 3 Dunlin at Ferrybridge.

A Silver-stripe Grass-veneer Catoptria margaritella - the third Portland record - was a surprise overnight capture in the Obs moth-traps; 3 Rusty-dot Pearl were the only routine immigrants caught.


Silver-stripe Grass-veneer - Portland Bill, 2nd July 2016 © Martin Cade

...presumably a wind-blown stray from the high moors of the West Country, but appreciably earlier in the season than the previous two island records that were at the Obs on 26th July 1997 and at Sweethill on 30th July 2014 (is the species on the wing in early July in Devon/Cornwall?).