30th July

July's been pretty good to us and continued in that vein today, with a notable rarity in the form of a Black Kite that passed through over the Bill during the morning; later, a Chough over Southwell was actually a considerably rarer visitor to the island than the kite. It was also a decent day for migrants, with a nice three figure arrival of Willow Warblers at the Bill, where 70 Swifts, 50 Sand Martins, 25 Sedge Warblers, 4 Yellow Wagtails, 3 Reed Warblers, 2 Wheatears and singles of Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Dunlin and Curlew provided some variety. The Ferrybridge wader situation was relatively unchanged, with 10 Sanderlings and 5 Redshank amongst the commoner fare.  For the second successive day a distant feeding aggregation of Gannets and Common Dolphins off the Bill attracted a few Storm Petrels, with 20 Sandwich Terns, 14 Common Scoter, 6 Manx Shearwaters, 3 Balearic Shearwaters and a Black Tern also passing through there.

The Black Kite was exciting and frustrating in equal measure: we were walking up the Obs drive to go across to check the nets in the Crown Estate Field when a dark raptor flashed past but was immediately lost to view behind the trees; a dash up to the roadside for some visibility revealed it looked to be a Black Kite and as we were running back into the Obs to alert others and grab a camera a call from Culverwell reported it had just flown past the ringers there as well. It was soon spotted from the Obs patio but afforded little more than rear-on views as it carried on very purposefully southwest and was soon lost to view behind the Coastguard Cottages as it headed on out to sea © Martin Cade:

To add to the raptor variety, fledged Peregrines are now straying fair distances - this bird was at Ferrybridge this morning © Pete Saunders:

yellow wagtail below culverwell, chough at bill quarry, sedge warbler also seen culverwell, wheatear just S of business park. wall lizard did a good job distracting a couple of kids on verge of a temper tantrum, plenty of painted lady in c.20 maybe.

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— andylportland.bsky.social (@andylportland.bsky.social) July 30, 2025 at 8:11 PM

i thought this might have been a pale clouded yellow but general opinion is it is just an helice clouded yellow as originally assumed

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— andylportland.bsky.social (@andylportland.bsky.social) July 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM

It's been coming, but for the first time Small Mottled Willow overtook Rush Veneer as most numerous migrant in last night's Obs moth-traps. Year's first Vestal +singles of Migrant Sable, Old World Webworm and Bordered Straw best of the rest

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— Portland Bird Observatory (@portlandbirdobs.bsky.social) July 30, 2025 at 12:13 PM

Pine and Striped Hawkmoths from last night’s traps #mothsmatter

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— Debra Saunders (@debbyseamist.bsky.social) July 30, 2025 at 3:10 PM