30th June

With our mobile raingauge - the wheelbarrow we'd left in the middle of a lawn at the Obs when the job we were working on begun to get rained off on Tuesday - measuring 8cm of rainfall in two and a half days it was something of a relief when sunny skies quickly replaced the drizzle of today's dawn. The Common Rosefinch took advantage and sung for a while at Southwell, but new arrivals consisted of just 5 Dunlin and a Willow Warbler grounded at Ferrybridge and the Bill respectively, 2 Sand Martins, a few Swifts, a Little Egret and a Whimbrel at the Bill and a Greenshank over Ferrybridge. Another 43 Common Scoter and 2 Sandwich Terns passed through off the Bill where upwards of 50 Manx Shearwaters were feeding offshore.

The gradual shift to a northwesterly wind direction saw immigrant moth numbers dwindle, with 17 Silver Y, 16 Diamond-back Moth, 9 Dark Sword Grass and 8 Rusty-dot Pearl making up the bulk of the numbers at the Obs; oddities there included singles of European Corn-borer, Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Pine Hawkmoth, True Lover's Knot and Scarce Bordered Straw.

By the look of the shoddy state the Common Rosefinch has got into it's already starting to moult so may well be ensconced for the duration © Pete Saunders:

...not that being in moult necessarily precludes moving about quite a bit: this morning's Willow Warbler trapped at the Obs was presumably a failed breeder (it was a female with a good brood patch) already well into its post-breeding moult; we're not sure how far away Willow Warblers breed these days but it certainly hadn't come from anywhere on Portland © Martin Cade:

One thing that hasn't failed to breed is this local Common Buzzard...

...its young look to have had Pheasant on the menu today © Pete Saunders:

Finally, a routine although always popular moth from the traps - a Drinker © Tony Hovell: