4th June

The Turtle Dove lingered on at Sweethill where a Spot Fly was new today. Sea ticked over all day incl 7 Balearics and singles of GNDiver, Sooty Shearwater and Pom Skua thru off the Bill. Best ringing day since mid-May - 25 birds between the Obs and Culverwell - although nearly all local breeders.

— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) June 4, 2025 at 11:59 PM

We had a slightly disconcerting event during our hitherto uneventful evening seawatch at the Bill when after seeing the occasional lingering Manx and Balearic Shearwater, suddenly a huge Sooty Shearwater careened into view and joined the offshore gull flock:

Apart from the time of year and the fact that the bird was in heavy wing moult which you don't usually see when we see Sooties later in the year, nothing seemed amiss until we started to notice that the bird had an alarmingly subdued underwing pattern - in the strong side-lighting the underwing should have looked really silvery but appeared barely more than anemically grey-washed...

...and this impression was confirmed when the bird powered away from the flock and looked to be leaving to the west...

However, it then suddenly landed for a few minutes and allowed for some long-range views of the bill structure before it did finally up and leave. We guessing that the bill looks a bit too long for a Short-tailed Shearwater and the bird was indeed just a Sooty with a rather subdued underwing pattern - certainly its overall bulk and flight mode didn't look in any way off for a Sooty.

So an interesting little event and we'll have to keep waiting for a Short-tailed Shearwater; hopefully that wait won't be too long what with all the upheaval going on with them elsewhere in the world this year - if one can get to somewhere as freaky as the Koshi Barrage then Portland must be well on the cards © Martin Cade