10th June

The promised change in the weather saw far more cloud in the sky and the threat - even if nothing ever materialised - of thundery rain rarely far away. Waders have provided a lot of the interest through the week so it shouldn't have been any surprise when Ferrybridge turned up the bird of the in the form of the island's sixth record of Red-necked Phalarope; 8 Sanderling and singles of Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit were amongst the relatively few other waders there. In the commoner migrant line the day's surprise happening was another decent passage offshore, with 290 commic terns, 112 Common Scoter, 53 Manx Shearwaters, 14 Sandwich Terns, 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 6 Oystercatchers, 5 Balearic Shearwaters, 5 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Gadwall, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Little Terns and singles of Arctic Skua and Black Tern through off the Bill. A small likely weather-related movement of Swifts was evident over the Bill, where a Dunlin also passed over but the only obvious new passerine on the ground was a lone Reed Warbler.

Not surprisingly, Red-necked Phalarope is a pretty high value rarity at Portland. There are only two previous records for Ferrybridge - in May 1972 and April 2002, whilst the other three records are all of October seawatch sightings: in 1960 and 1980 off the Bill and in 1963 off Chesil © Martin Cade: