The influence of the depression that brought yesterday's stormy conditions continued to be felt and it remained windy all day, albeit with the direction having edged towards the west.
Long-tailed Skuas continued to feature, with one off Chesil Cove during the morning and reports suggesting others passed during the afternoon. Quality was not otherwise a feature on the sea, with 3
Arctic Skuas and a
Balearic Shearwater through at the Cove and 6
Balearic Shearwaters and an
Arctic Skua off the Bill;
Lesser Black-backed Gulls were the only birds in numbers, with more than 120 leaving to the south from the Bill. The
Grey Phalarope lingered on through the morning at least at Ferrybridge, where 3
Knot were the only slight oddities amongst the more routine waders that also included a fair total of 180
Ringed Plover. Passage looked to have ground to a halt on the land, with a lingering
Pied Flycatcher the pick of what little was on offer at the Bill.
The Grey Phalarope wasn't so settled today © Pete Saunders:
On a pretty wild night we had no hopes whatsoever for the few moth-traps that were left on so it was quite a surprise when what little that was caught included a Slender Burnished Brass - only the second record for Portland of this pretty scarce immigrant; in due course we'll try and get a decent photograph of it out of glass tube but today its residual migratory urge was such that it just wouldn't oblige © Martin Cade:
