12th May

A wholesale albeit brief change overnight saw some heavy showers roll in off the Channel and give the island its first proper drenching in many weeks; the rain had moved on through by dawn and although cloud persisted for most of the morning, by early afternoon it was back to square one as blazing sunshine returned. The rain had been flagged up as perhaps giving us a modicum of hope and it did indeed drop a handful more migrants than had been logged on most other day so far this barren month; the total didn't amount to much but beggars can't be choosers so the odd few Wheatears, phylloscs, Reed, Sedge and Garden Warblers, and Spotted Flycatchers on the ground, and 2 Little Egrets, 2 Yellow Wagtails and an unseasonable Merlin overhead were much appreciated. Two early morning Pomarine Skuas gave hope on the sea but in the event 3 Great Northern and a Red-throated Diver, an Arctic Skua and a few Common Scoter were poor subsequent reward; 3 Canada Geese were off also off West Cliffs and the Mediterranean Gull gathering off Chesil was still well into the low hundreds. 

You get some wacky things turn out out of the blue: this Heinz 57 domestic duck - is it a call duck of some sort? - was spotted bobbing about close inshore off East Cliffs at the Bill this morning. Where on earth had it come from? © Verity Hill:

Since we've done as poorly for them as we have for migrant birds so far this spring an overnight increase in moth numbers and variety was very welcome; amongst the haul at the Obs a White Spot was a nice catch - there are only six previous records there and one additional record from elsewhere on the island. Since the larval foodplant - Nottingham Catchfly - is absent from the island these moths must originate from elsewhere and, in view of last night's weather tracking up from across the Channel, it seems just as likely that this individual came from France as it does that it strayed from the highly localised Dorset population on the Purbeck coast © Martin Cade:

No big numbers but more than in the recent dire days ringing at@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social with a total of 27 birds of 11 species ringed. 2 Spot Fly, 8 CC, 3 WW,, 2 Reed and 3 Sedge W plus a Paris ringed one, pictured. All control birds and their ring are photographed at PBO to send to the BTO.

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— Peter J Morgan (@pbo61.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 8:04 PM