2nd September

Plenty more wind and at least some more showery rain saw pretty well all the day's attention given to the sea. An early morning Cory's Shearwater through off the Bill ensured that for a while there was plenty of interest in proceedings, but with subsequent rewards consisting of little more than 79 Balearic Shearwaters, 6 Arctic Skuas and 2 Sooty Shearwaters attentiveness had dwindled long before midday when, completely out of the blue when most other movement had ceased, a Fea's Petrel species raced through westwards. A Grey Phalarope lingered at Chesil Cove and 2 Little Stints dropped in at Ferrybridge but there was little else of note amongst the rest of the day's sightings.

To some extent you make you your own luck so maybe all the extra hours we've spent seawatching this year - often at unconventional times like the evenings - was eventually going to pay off. We have actually seen a Fea's Petrel species off the Bill before but there were no photos/videos of that one so on the basis of the 'no photo, no record' that ought to apply to ourselves as much as we'd like it to apply to everyone else, today's bird was a sort of first for the Bill - and maybe not before time either? By Bill standards it was pretty distant - well past half way out - and wasn't heading down parallel with the East Cliffs but was picked up coming under the West Shambles Buoy and staying well out for the duration of its pass; it certainly had the feel of something that was a lot more pelagic than the likes of the Balearic Shearwaters and Arctic Skuas that trundle past at relatively close range © Martin Cade:

Also from the Bill tip, the Sooty Shearwater and a couple of random 'over the Obelisk' fly-bys - Gannet and Whimbrel © Martin Cade:

One of the two Little Stints at Ferrybridge this morning © Pete Saunders:

Yet another Striped Hawkmoth was the pick of the overnight migrant moth catch at the Obs © Martin King: