23rd July

With thick fog lingering throughout the hours of darkness few nocturnal migrants would have had any inkling of Portland's existence and the only reports of grounded arrivals were of 2 Sedge Warblers at the Bill. Visible migrants did start to feature once the fog cleared after dawn, with 78 Sand Martins, a Siskin and a trickle of Swifts through over the Bill and 17 Common Scoter, 5 Dunlin, 3 Sandwich Terns, 2 Black-headed Gulls and a Manx Shearwater through on the sea there.

In most previous years the Ferrybridge Little Tern's breeding season will already have been over by now and they'll have upped and gone, but this year there's been a bit of a disaster at the hands of a Kestrel and they're still ensconced after re-laying and should be present for quite a while yet © Pete Saunders: