1st June

We had almost stopped saying the phrase, "good day for raptors", for the simple reason that almost the entirety of the last month was a good day for raptors even if we had very little success. Today, however, was a perfect day for raptors, and as such a Honey Buzzard flew in off the sea and straight up the east cliffs. Once again, other migrants were limited to a very small selection of Willow Warblers (a new singing bird in the garden and a new bird trapped), Chiffchaffs and two Spotted Flycatchers. The gull flock once again attracted Balearic Shearwaters with two emerging amongst the feeding birds. The rest of the sea watch was relatively uneventful with 35 Manx Shearwaters and three each of Puffin and Dunlin.

This afternoon's Honey Buzzard © Wayne & Lauren Tucker Newton-St-Loe Birding


The Lulworth Skippers are getting well underway in this warm weather © Roy Norris