8th August

A bit of a frustrating day with a pretty raging wind making it hard to get amongst what looked to be a decent little flurry of new grounded migrants at dawn, whilst the intensity of the heat once the wind died down meant that activity fizzled out quite quickly (...in fact it became so hot by midday - more than 30°C which is truly exceptional for the Bill - that we thought it circumspect to shut the mist-nets in even the shadiest parts of the Obs garden). Willow Warblers made up the bulk of the numbers, with 40 or more at the Bill where a light scatter of Wheatears, a handful of Sedge Warblers and a Garden Warbler were also logged. Hirundines, Swifts, Black-headed Gulls and a couple of Grey Herons were on the move overhead - with both Sand Martin and Swallow getting into three figure totals at the Bill alone. Ferrybridge stole the show rarity-wise, with a Rosy Starling dropping in with the Starlings for a short while before it relocated to fields near the Bridging Camp later in the day; 43 Ringed Plover, 31 Dunlin, a Sanderling and a Knot were the best of the waders there.

We'd thought our good summer for Rosy Starlings was over but then up popped this fine specimen on the roof of the Chesil Beach Centre © Angela Thomas:



Little Terns, Sandwich Terns and a Knot were also amongst the Ferrybridge ensemble today...




...whilst Priti Patel would be horrified to discover that both Polish and Serbian seagulls had snuck through and pitched up on our shores © Pete Saunders:



Moth-wise, it would have been difficult to match the excitement of the last couple of nights even if, for sheer quantity of catch alone, it was by far the best night of the year to date. Dispersal was very evident, as much in the form of enormous numbers of beetles and hoverflies as it was for moths, with this Chevron perhaps the most infrequently caught species making it onto the night's list -  it's a simple pleasure at a place as inhospitable for many 'inland' moths as Portland is that we get almost as excited to trap something like this as we do to catch all manner of rare immigrants that we're lucky enough to see rather often! © Martin Cade: