6th June

A rather thin list for today with arriving, departing, lingering and 'goodness knows what they're up to' migrants featuring. The miscellany at the Bill included 266 Manx Shearwaters, a Barnacle Goose and a commic tern through on the sea, a Hobby through overhead and 2 Blackcaps, 2 Chiffchaffs and a Lapwing on the ground, whilst odds and ends elsewhere included a Grey Plover over Reap Lane and 2 Willow Warblers in the centre of the island.

The first Lulworth Skipper of the year was on the wing above Penn's Weare.

By day, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth was at Coombefield Quarry. The overnight immigrant moth tally at the Obs dropped back to just 9 Diamond-back Moth, 3 Silver Y and a Rusty-dot Pearl.

It's been some years since we've remembered to look out for one of the island's speciality beetles - Omophlus pubescens (formerly O. rufitarsis) - but last evening there were a few visiting thrift heads at Ferrybridge (sadly, a nasty traffic accident had blocked the road there this evening so we weren't able to check the situation today). We don't profess to know anything about beetles so most of what follows about pubescens has been gleaned from visiting coleopterists (with apologies if we've got any of it wrong): evidently the Chesil at Ferrybridge is the only UK site and the adult stage lasts just a day or so, with this mass emergence occurring on or about 6th June; we can vouch for it being a mass emergence since we've several times looked for them for days on the trot at the beginning of the month before eventually finding a few on one day, very many thousands the day afterwards and then just a handful the day after that. If they have emerged the adults are very conspicuous and are often crowded several to a thrift head where they evidently feed on the flower's pollen © Martin Cade:



And back to today for a couple of the many Bee Orchids in flower at the Bill now © Martin King: