It hasn't taken long to get into the rut of migrants getting the hang of samey conditions and steering clear of dropping out at as sub-optimal a spot as Portland. The redeeming feature of increased chances of scarcities might have been the silver lining but for the fact that today's arrivals in that department eluded nearly everyone: a seemingly active-migrant Hoopoe shot straight through beside the Obs without stopping, a Hawfinch made the briefest of visits to a garden at Blacknor and, potentially best of all, a very likely Short-toed Lark passed overhead so quickly near the Bill tip that it couldn't even be clinched for certain. Swallows were again moving through steadily if unspectacularly but it was dismal on the ground with barely more than ones and twos of even the most routine arrivals. After yesterday's tern-fest there were hopes for the sea but these quickly fizzled out and the morning's tally at the Bill consisted of just 52 Common Scoter, 33 commic terns, 31 Sandwich Terns, 8 Black Terns and singles of Red-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver and Arctic Skua. Ferrybridge waders included 9 Sanderling and a Knot.
Some of this morning's Black Terns - always an exciting sight off the Bill and, for obvious reasons, nearly always really difficult to get a meaningful record photograph of © Martin Cade:
