A brisker easterly breeze saw a little more get moving overhead, with 30
Sand Martins and 7
Shelducks through at Ferrybridge and 38
Swifts, 12
Sand Martins and singles of
Grey Heron,
Little Egret and
Curlew through at the Bill. There was also a pulse of movement on the sea, with 35
Sandwich Terns (...where had they all come from?), 32
Common Scoter, 5
Mediterranean Gulls and a
Yellow-legged Gull through off the Bill. Odds and ends on the ground included a
Willow Warbler at the Bill and 60
Mediterranean Gulls and a
Grey Plover at Ferrybridge.
Under a very bright moon the overnight moth catch was rather reduced; a
Grey Ermine Yponomeuta sedella at Sweethill was easily the best of a limited selection of immigrants and island scarcities.
Presumably these Shelducks heading east over Ferrybridge are on their way to the moulting area in northwest Germany © Pete Saunders:
Grey Ermine is a rare stray to Portland and looks to be only thinly distributed in Dorset as a whole © Debby Saunders:
