23rd July

Whilst enjoying what looked to be a promising early morning flurry of migrants word was received that a large owl had been seen fleetingly near the Obs Quarry and it wasn't long before the bird blundered into the Obs garden and into a mist-net where its identity as 'the' Long-eared Owl could be confirmed. Migrant-wise, 25 Willow Warblers, 5 Wheatears, 5 Sedge Warblers and a Garden Warbler were grounded at the Bill, with 61 Dunlin, 15 Ringed Plover and 13 Sanderling (along with 290 Mediterranean Gulls) making up the slightly meagre wader selection at Ferrybridge. Mediterranean Gulls also made up the bulk of the numbers off the Bill, where 16 Common Scoter, 10 Manx Shearwaters, 4 Yellow-legged Gulls, 2 Balearic Shearwaters and a Whimbrel also passed by.

Since we've had a Long-eared Owl remain at the Bill for literally months in the past without any suspicion of its presence it was no surprise when, out of the blue, last week's bird appeared in a mist-net at the Obs this morning - after its initial dabble at being diurnal it's presumably reverted to type and become more or less strictly nocturnal.


Hardly surprisingly, we don't handle Long-eared Owls nearly often enough to know anything about telling the sexes apart although we were aware it's possible. According to the literature some of the features to check are the underwing coverts - white in male, more golden-buff in female...


...the outer web of the largest alula feather - three or fewer bars in male, four bars in female...


...and the colour of the inner webs of the secondaries - white in male, buff in female. These features all seem to indicate the bird is a male - perhaps there are folk out there with more experience of the species who could confirm that for us? © Martin Cade:


Immigrant moth interest remains almost non-existent but there are always some nice local specials to look out for. The advent of pheromone lures has seen the clearwings lose a lot of their mystique but it's still exciting to occasionally bump into Six-belted Clearwing - by far the most frequent of the species present on the island - 'in the field'; this mating pair at Tout Quarry surprised the photographer by flying in and landing right in front of him © Colin Burningham:


Late July specials in the moth-traps just lately have included the Wormwood - the first one of the year was trapped at the Obs last night...


...and a few Small Grey Eudonia mercurella of the distinctive local form portlandica - this one was trapped a few days ago by Paul Parsons at St Andrews Church © Martin Cade: