Just at the moment it seems a lot more likely that Kosmos 482 will plunge into the Obs garden than it does that a worthwhile migrant - or any migrants in quantity - will pitch in here; today there were high hopes that the heavy cloud cover that had rolled in overnight would do us a favour but in the event there was only the smallest improvement in the parlous migrant situation and, within a few hours of dawn, the cloud had dissipated and blazing sunshine had returned. The stalwart efforts of the six visiting ringers - we're not underhanded! - at the Obs/Crown Estate Field deserve credit and sympathy in equal measure for sticking to their task and ringing 22 new birds - the highest day-total so far this month but also a total that more than adequately demonstrated how little was about. Phylloscs made up more than half of this total and it was otherwise only Spotted Flycatchers that achieved any sort of visibility with 10 in the wider Bill area; elsewhere, there was an increase to 10 Sanderlings at Ferrybridge. The promise of some half-decent pulses of hirundines once the cloud cleared didn't build into a stronger passage even if birds did continue to trickle through well into the evening. Bearing in mind the strength of passage further up-Channel, the sea was also hugely disappointing, with little more than 50 Common Scoter and 21 Bar-tailed Godwits through off the Bill and 100 Mediterranean Gulls lingering off Chesil; news from a boat journey offshore concerned a Storm Petrel seen four miles SSW of the Bill.
An interesting little moth event in the last week has been the capture of two Blair's Mochas at the Obs - one last night and the other on 2nd May. Although this species is no longer the great rarity it once was and even appears to be colonising various spots along the South Coast, it's remained a good scarcity for us with, for example, just 16 records ever for the Obs garden. These two are our earliest ever - in fact there's never been a spring record here before - and with plenty of its food plant, Holm Oak, in the Obs garden there must be a good chance it's getting established here © Martin Cade:
