8th July

The sea again provided most of the day's interest, with 19 Balearic Shearwaters passing the Bill through the morning; 52 west-bound Common Scoter were an indication of their autumn passage getting going, whilst another Yellow-legged Gull also passed by and 3 Sand Martins and a Grey Heron left to the south. 

The sight of one of the rarer hawkmoths in a moth-trap is always something to set the pulse racing; today it was the turn of a Bedstraw Hawk - the 17th recorded at Portland - to wake us up with quite a start during our hitherto uneventful round of the traps © Martin Cade: