With it looking like
Balearic Shearwaters were going to be in for the duration so they evaporated just as quickly as they'd arrived, with just 6 logged from the Bill today. However, the sea did salvage some interest for the day, with the first daylight sighting of a
Storm Petrel this summer, along with 41 departing
Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 2
Arctic Skuas and a lingering
Yellow-legged Gull amongst others; at least another 2
Yellow-legged Gulls were also loafing in the fields. Migration on the land was pretty pedestrian, with 6
Willow Warblers, 2
Yellow Wagtails and a few passing
hirundines at the Bill and 3
Sanderlings, 3
Redshanks, a
Whimbrel and the season's first
Greenshank at Ferrybridge.
Juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls haven't been particularly numerous so far this month and the current daily records have often come by dint of more searching for them than is usually required at this time of year © Pete Saunders:
Unpromising moth-trapping conditions overnight and only a limited range of migrants to show for the effort but they did include a Striped Hawk amongst increasing numbers of fresh/dark presumably home or near continent-bred specimens
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— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 11:05 AM
