No respite from the wind again today, in fact by the evening it can't have been too far off gale force at the Bill; that said, the return of a blue sky saw to it that it was pleasantly warm wherever there was any shelter. A/the
Serin did a quick fly-round at the Obs during the morning but the sea accounted for the rest of the interest, with 11
Balearic Shearwaters, a
Great Skua and an unseasonable
Great Northern Diver the best of it off the Bill;
Gannets and
Manx Shearwaters provided the numbers there: the former - particularly immatures - have been streaming by in recent days, with well into a four figure total again today, whilst the latter peaked in the evening when upwards of 200 per hour were heading east.
A
Large Tortoiseshell was in private gardens at the Grove today.
Whilst hardly numerous, Large Tortoiseshells have become pretty routine during their appropriate seasons - this one was basking in evening sunshine at the Grove today. An interesting issue is how they seem to pop up randomly all over the island - are they just very mobile or is there more than the one breeding site? © Martin Cade:
