13th July

A welcome improvement in the weather brought about a welcome increase in interest today. The autumn's first departing Grasshopper Warbler was an on cue arrival at the Bill where a light passage of Swifts and Sand Martins - along with a single Yellow Wagtail - also developed overhead. It was the sea though that provided all of the morning's numbers that included 400 Manx Shearwaters, 10 Common Scoter, 10 Mediterranean Gulls, 4 Yellow-legged Gulls, 3 Whimbrel, 3 Sandwich Terns, 2 Balearic Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Skuas, a/the Red-throated Diver and a Great Skua.

This Banded Demoiselle was a surprise visitor to the Obs garden today; although occurring across on the mainland in appropriate habitat as close as at Radipole, Portland records seemingly number fewer than five in total © Martin Cade: