19th August

All change on the weather front with a washed-out morning giving way to a sunny but increasingly windy afternoon as a deep depression approached off the Atlantic. The morning rainfall looked to have precious little effect passerine-wise, with 4 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Whinchats and a Pied Flycatcher the best of the few birds evident around the Bill; waders were better represented, with 186 Ringed Plover, 150 Dunlin and 15 Sanderling at Ferrybridge, where 8 Little Terns also showed up. Seawatching at the Bill after the rain came up with 30 Manx Shearwaters, 19 Balearic Shearwaters and 14 Common Scoter.

Despite what looked to be good catching conditions the Obs moth-traps were quieter than yesterday, with 63 Rusty-dot Pearl, 43 Diamond-back Moth, 17 Rush Veneer, 4 Silver Y, a Gem and a Dark Sword Grass making up the immigrant tally; another Gem made it into the Grove trap.



Yellow Pearls Mecyna flavalis - Portland, August 2016 © Martin Cade

...maybe the first time two Yellow Pearls have been in the same pot in Dorset since Victorian times; we'd got side-tracked from taking this photo earlier in the week - the left hand of these two specimens came from John Lucas' Reap Lane moth-trap on Tuesday (16th), whilst the other was from one of our Obs traps on Wednesday. These are only the third and fourth Portland records of the modern era.