16th June

The fine, warm weather continued and there were precious few signs that the summer rarity was about to pop up. Two new Chiffchaffs at the Obs looked to be early departers as were the light trickle of Swifts and single House Martin heading out to sea overhead. Two each of Sanderling and Dunlin made up the migrant wader tally at Ferrybridge, where 2 Shelducks also dropped in. The only other reports were of 10 Manx Shearwaters through off the Bill and a lone Gannet in Portland Harbour.

Usually at this time of year we have a quick look back at how common migrants fared during the spring and, as before, it's easiest to gauge this by way of the Obs ringing totals that are based on a pretty consistent effort from one year to the next; these totals - together with comparison figures for 2010-16 and the mean for that period - were as follows:

As we'd drawn attention to earlier, it's immediately obvious that Willow Warbler was the big winner this spring with a total nearly twice as high as the recent spring average; in fact, their total wasn't far off equalling the all-time record for a whole year (which stands at 2113 in 2012). For our other regulars it really wasn't too bad a season: both Whitethroat and Garden Warbler were more than a third down on their recent averages (...this perhaps didn't come as a surprise given that both had very poor years in 2016) and the two 'crests didn't recover after their indifferent showings last autumn, but everything else was hovering either side of average.

Sanderling and Shelducks at Ferrybridge this morning © Pete Saunders:

...a Gannet off the Bill © Martin Cade:

...and a Hornet Hoverfly Volucella zonaria at Bottomcombe © Ken Dolbear:

15th June

Not quite so hot and noticeably breezier today in the wake of the very weak weather front that passed through during the morning. Another brief Serin - this one heard calling at Southwell - was the only report of note on the ground, although a steady little passage of departing Swifts was evident overhead and included 70 leaving to the south from the Bill. The only other action was out to sea where 43 Manx Shearwaters, 23 Common Scoter, 7 Whimbrel and 2 Balearic Shearwaters passed by off the Bill.

A single Delicate at Blacknor was the only worthwhile oddity amongst the handful of immigrant moths trapped overnight.

A pair of mating Scarlet Tigers at Easton © Ken Dolbear:

14th June

On a lovely hot, sunny day interest was again pretty minimal. A Chiffchaff was the only new arrival at the Bill, where 4 Sandwich Terns and 3 each of Manx Shearwater, Common Scoter and Mediterranean Gull passed by on the sea. The only reports from elsewhere were of 3 Sanderlings, a Shelduck and a Grey Heron at Ferrybridge.

Immigrant moth arrivals seem to have utterly ceased, with a single battered Rusty-dot Pearl the only overnight capture in the Obs traps.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Marbled White and Silver-studded Blue at the Bill and Broadcroft BC Reserve today © Tony Hovell:

13th June

Although a couple of Storm Petrels had been trapped and ringed overnight at the Bill the daylight hours were pretty uneventful. A Grey Wagtail was an out-of-season visitor to the Bill where a Willow Warbler was also new but the only other reports were of 20 Common Scoter and a few Manx Shearwaters through on the sea there.

A group of 10 or so Bottle-nosed Dolphins were off the Bill during the afternoon.

One of last night's Storm Petrels © Martin Cade:

Just a few years ago it would have been unimaginable that anything remotely interesting could have been written about a Greenfinch trapped and ringed at the Obs - at that time they were one of the commonest breeding passerines at the Bill and dozens were ringed at this time of year. However, such has been the scale of their recent demise throughout the island that this bird (actually it was one of two caught together that we presume wandered from Culverwell where at least two pairs have been present) was the first juvenile ringed at the Obs for three years © Martin Cade:

12th June

Precious little to report today. Eight Swifts left to the south at the Bill, 12 Manx Shearwaters, a Common Scoter and an Arctic Skua passed through off the Bill and a lone Sanderling was at Ferrybridge.

Immigrant moth interest was limited to singles of Rusty-dot Pearl and Silver Y trapped overnight at the Obs and several Hummingbird Hawkmoths scattered about the island by day.

One of yesterday's Arctic Skuas at the Bill © Keith Pritchard:

...and an Emperor Dragonfly at Bottomcombe today © Ken Dolbear:

11th June

Although the return of settled conditions looks to be on the horizon, for the time being the strength of the wind remained both a hindrance and a blessing. Coverage of the land wasn't at all easy but a Reed Warbler was a noteworthy new arrival at the Bill; 4 Swallows there looked have got cheesed off with the conditions and were watched departing out to sea. The benefits of the wind came on the sea, with singles of Sooty Shearwater and Long-tailed Skua through off the Bill being nice highlights for their observer; more mundane fare there included the first signs of return passage of Common Scoters - a total of 156 heading west - together with 4 Manx Shearwaters, 3 Arctic Skuas and 3 Sandwich Terns. The only report from elsewhere was of the long-staying Eider still in Portland Harbour.

10th June

Still rather breezy today but for a change perfectly birdable on the land in nice warm sunshine. Another brief fly-by Serin showed up - this time over Culverwell - but the only other newcomers there were singles of Whitethroat and Blackcap, both of which looked likely to be failed breeders. Sea interest dwindled away still further, with nothing more than a trickle of Manx Shearwaters and a single Arctic Skua through off the Bill.

On the immigrant moth front both numbers and variety were very poor, with singles of Delicate and Scarce Bordered Straw providing the best of the interest at the Obs.

This buzzard (being dived on by a Peregrine) was the chief frustration of the day: it had presumably just arrived in off the sea over the Obs but sadly wasn't spotted until it had already gone over and was powering away to the northwest; it looked very likely to have been a Honey Buzzard but was one of those things that you felt maybe wasn't quite 100% clinched © Martin Cade:

Although immigrant moth numbers have dropped away this is a good time of year for some of the island's speciality indigenous species; this quite early Chalk Carpet was the first of the season at the Obs today:

...whilst Portland Ribbon Waves have been on the wing since the beginning of the month - this one at the Grove on 2nd June was our first for the year © Martin Cade:

9th June

The strong wind that set in earlier in the week is taking its time to die away, with today's blustery conditions again severely impacting on land coverage. The only worthwhile reports were of small numbers of Manx Shearwaters, a Great Northern Diver and a Great Skua through off the Bill.

Out of the wind and in the sun it was really quite warm today and much to the liking of Silver-studded Blues that are now getting out on the wing in some numbers - these two were at Admiralty Quarry © Ken Dolbear:

And to end on something completely different, we now have a static bat detector deployed at the Bill, with the principle intention of maybe tapping into some migrant bat activity. We're total novices when it comes to anything to do with bats so we're heavily reliant on the expert help of Adrian Bicker, who initiated the project in the first place. Adrian's still having to spend a lot of time with us going through the sound files generated by the detector and on today's visit he identified several passes on a night earlier this month by a Greater Horseshoe Bat:

We'll give a fuller rundown on findings in due course, but these were the first detections of a Greater Horseshoe since we got going back in April. We do have occasional previous records of Greater Horseshoe seen in various circumstances and it'll interesting to discover whether the species crops up more frequently now that sampling's taking place every night.

8th June

Whilst we appreciate the excitement that seawatchers elsewhere along the Channel have been getting from the sight of a few inshore Storm Petrels, the relentless wind and hours spend gawping at the sea is beginning to take its toll at Portland, particularly at this time of year when it feels a lot like valuable time for late spring rarities is being lost. Quite remarkably bearing in mind their numbers elsewhere - and following yesterday's blank - there was just a single Storm Petrel logged at the Bill today; Manx Shearwaters were prominent throughout the day, with the steady west-bound movement looking from sample counts to have totalled around 3000, with a lone Balearic Shearwater the only addition to the mix.

7th June

Interest was hard to come by on another windy day. The sea got virtually all the attention and although Manx Shearwaters were offshore in small numbers all day the only other reports were of 22 Common Scoter and a Great Northern Diver through off the Bill. The only new arrival apparent on the land was a Lesser Whitethroat at the Bill.

6th June

We're struggling to remember a June storm that was quite as ferocious as the one that blew in overnight (we've been told that the wind strength was gusting up to force 10 at times) and left in its wake a scene of minor devastation around the island with the ground carpeted in fallen leaves and quite substantial branches broken from trees; with the wind remaining up around gale force for the best part of the day seawatching was the only birding possible. Storm Petrels featured off the Bill throughout the day but it was difficult to get a handle on numbers and quite likely that the majority of sightings related to the same few lingering individuals; Manx Shearwaters were also a mixture of lingerers and passing birds but certainly got into the low hundreds, whilst 32 Common Scoter, 5 Arctic Skuas, a Balearic Shearwater and a Great Skua also passed by.

The gaping holes exposed in many of the trees around the Obs garden after an extraordinary amount of leaf-fall would have been useful during last week's Greenish/Two-barred Greenish episode and might yet prove handy before the spring's out:

The strength of the wind was enough to literally rip apart quite a few of our carefully nurtured Tree Mallows:

Manx Shearwaters were an ever-present feature offshore even if their numbers didn't approach yesterday's tally © Martin King (top) and Martin Cade (bottom):

One or two of the day's Storm Petrels looked to be passing straight through but the majority of sightings were of lingering birds and we suspect that very few individuals were involved - gone are the days of 20 or so years ago when counts of way into three figures would have been quite routine on windy days at this time of year © Martin Cade:

5th June

Land birding took a back seat as a fierce little Atlantic depression swept through and introduced an unseasonable storm today. Manx Shearwaters featured all day off the Bill, where sample counts of getting on for 300 an hour at times suggested the day total wouldn't have been far short of 2000; singles of Sooty Shearwater and Balearic Shearwater also passed by but there was precious little else of note. The only other reports were of a Mediterranean Gull off Chesil and 18 Sanderling and 6 Dunlin at Ferrybridge.

Flaming June it was not, with the sea whipped into a boiling frenzy once the wind topped gale force during the evening © Martin Cade:

In slightly better conditions during the afternoon we'd managed to be in the wrong spot at the right moment - at the Obs instead of the Bill tip - when the Sooty Shearwater passed through amongst a group of Manx; such are the resolving powers of even 'ordinary' camera equipment these days that we just about managed to get some record shots of it at what has to be getting on for a mile range:

4th June

If a heard-only fly-by qualifies as the bird of the day then a Serin that just got on the radar of one lucky observer at the Obs during the afternoon was the highlight. The only other worthwhile reports from the land were of an apparently new Lesser Whitethroat at Southwell and 10 Sanderling and 6 Dunlin at Ferrybridge. Breezy conditions saw the sea produce 75 Manx Shearwaters, 7 Common Scoter and singles of Great Skua and Arctic Skua through off the Bill.

An early Marbled White was on the wing at the Bill.

Cooler, breezy conditions saw immigrant moth interest take a dip, with a handful of Rusty-dot Pearl and Silver Y the only species trapped overnight at the Obs.

3rd June

Largely uneventful today, with 17 Sanderling and 12 Dunlin at Ferrybridge and 2 Reed Warblers at the Bill the only obvious new arrivals. The only other reports were of 25 Common Scoter and a single Great Skua through off the Bill.

Both Painted Lady and Hummingbird Hawkmoth looked to more numerous and widely distributed today than at any time since both started to show up in small numbers a couple of weeks ago.

Overnight immigrant moth totals at the Obs included 10 Diamond-back Moth, 8 each of Rusty-dot Pearl and Silver Y, 2 Rush Veneer and singles of Pine Hawkmoth and Small Mottled Willow.

A couple of the day-flying moths on the wing at the Bill in recent days - Burnet Companion and Mother Shipton © Ken Dolbear:

2nd June

Today's mainly overcast skies looked a little more promising from the migrant point of view and pretty thorough coverage of the Bill area eventually came up with a reasonable return. An early morning report from a visitor of a Red-footed Falcon flying over Southwell would have constituted a nice highlight but it couldn't be found again so perhaps won't be adjudged to be completely clinched. A Turtle Dove was the pick of the other new arrivals, with at least 4 new Chiffchaffs, a new Whitethroat and singles of Redstart and Black Redstart making up the rest of the tally; elsewhere a Willow Warbler was fresh in at Blacknor. A few odds and ends on the sea included 50 Manx Shearwaters, 28 Common Scoter, a Great Skua and a Sandwich Tern through off the Bill.

Immigrant moth numbers and quality have slowly declined through the week, with just 9 Rusty-dot Pearl, 2 Silver Y and singles of Diamond-back Moth, Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Orange Footman, Delicate and Small Mottled Willow caught overnight at the Obs.

A few random images from today's wanderings around the island © Emma Cockburn:

...and © Joe Stockwell:

1st June

As so often happens at this time of year, as the length of the day list gets shorter so the quality increases. Two Chiffchaffs at the Bill were the only routine migrants making today's list but the other two birds of note were both rarities: what was presumably yesterday's Golden Oriole showed briefly early in the morning at the Grove Stadium, whilst towards midday a Greenish Warbler dropped in at the Obs where it was later trapped and ringed.

The Greenish Warbler was a very tricky bird that we're still investigating. It first announced its appearance by suddenly calling loudly and then briefly singing beside the Obs patio; since it wasn't visible, Greenish seemed like the best bet on what had been heard but there was a caution mentioned that perhaps Two-barred Greenish couldn't be eliminated. Quite a while elapsed before it sung again and our recorder placed in the garden picked up quite a few song phrases during this period without us ever actually seeing the bird:

The calls recorded more or less confirmed what we thought we'd heard at the outset: they were rather clipped and disyllabic rather than trisyllabic (which we took to be a pro-Greenish feature):

Eventually it turned up in a net whereupon we were pretty surprised to discover how prominent the greater covert wingbar was and how there was clearly a median covert wingbar of sorts. These features certainly lent support to the possibility of it perhaps being Two-barred Greenish. However, it was also apparent that the supercilium appeared to 'bridge' over the base of the bill and that there was a general cold greyish tone to the upperparts - both features that seemed to be more pro-Greenish:

After brief perusal in the hand we were a bit fortunate to have obtained both a faecal sample and a couple of dislodged feathers which put our mind at rest that although we were hedging toward it being a Greenish, in the fullness of time a definitive ID was going to be possible and we wouldn't have to fret over the matter any more! After release the bird proved to be as difficult to get to grips with as it had been before: it was silent and was only glimpsed on odd occasions and pretty well always in circumstances that offered nothing by way of help with what its true field appearance might be © Martin Cade:

31st May

After a day when the only oddity reported had been a Hooded Crow over Weston there was a spurt of evening action when first a Red-rumped Swallow was discovered hawking over the Grove pig farm and then observers looking for the swallow were treated to a couple of flight views of a Golden Oriole at the Grove Stadium/St Peter's Church. The day's only new commoner migrants had been 2 Chiffchaffs and a Spotted Flycatcher at the Obs, with a Lesser Whitethroat and a couple more Chiffchaffs lingering on there from recent days; elsewhere there were 8 Sanderlings at Ferrybridge. The only sea reports were of 50 Manx Shearwaters, 10 Common Scoter, a Whimbrel and a Black-headed Gull through off the Bill.

Single Small Marbleds at the Obs and Weston were by far the best of the night's immigrant moths; 8 Rush Veneer, 6 Rusty-dot Pearl, 4 Diamond-back Moth and 3 Silver Y made up the rest of the immigrant tally at the Obs where a Beautiful Golden Y was a good island record.

It's been a good spring for Red-rumped Swallows - this evening's bird was the fifth of the season © Martin Cade: 

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Ni Moth, today's Small Marbleds were another nice 'mid-table' rarity that'll certainly maintain interest © Martin Cade:

30th May

A few more new arrivals today, including singles of Cuckoo, Reed Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Spotted Flycatcher at the Bill, but not a sniff of the hoped-for late spring rarity. Seawatch reports included 150 Manx Shearwaters, 14 Common Scoter and an Arctic Skua through off the Bill.

On a breezier night immigrant moth activity was fairly subdued but a Ni Moth did provide some quality at the Obs; 10 Diamond-back Moth, 8 Rush Veneer, 5 each of Rusty-dot Pearl and Silver Y, and singles of Orange Footman and Small Mottled Willow made up the rest of the immigrant/wanderer tally there.

Despite at times very promising-looking conditions, Portland hasn't fared too well during the current spell of moth immigration, with routine fare not particularly numerous and rarities all but absent - we suspect that many insects were carried way over the island by the thunderstorms and didn't drop out until they were well past the coast; today's Ni Moth has been about as it's got so far, although there's plenty of time for things to improve © Martin Cade:

A peculiar event today was the occurrence of three species of tiger moth: Cream-spot Tigers are to be expected now and are quite numerous in everyone's traps; a Garden Tiger however was quite unseasonable at the Obs where the usual flight period is July and August - we don't have any previous May records; a Scarlet Tiger at Easton wasn't quite so outlandish, although even they're not usually on the wing much before mid-June © Martin Cade (Garden Tiger) and Ken Dolbear (Scarlet Tiger):

29th May

A sunny start proved not to be at all representative of the day as a whole, with fog and occasional rain quickly setting in before a brisk westerly blew up towards dusk. The only worthwhile reports were of a Reed Warbler and a Chiffchaff at the Bill, another Reed Warbler at Portland Castle, 17 Dunlin and a Sanderling at Ferrybridge and 11 Manx Shearwaters, 5 Common Scoter and a Pomarine Skua through off the Bill.

Immigrant moth numbers continued to tick along at a lowish level, with 43 Diamond-back Moth, 7 Small Mottled Willow, 5 Rush Veneer, 4 each of Rusty-dot Pearl and Silver Y, and singles of Hummingbird Hawkmoth and Dark Sword Grass trapped overnight at the Obs.

How often is it that Reed Warblers take on the guise of something much more interesting when they're lurking high up in trees?...

...fortunately this one had been heard singing before it had even been seen © Martin Cade:

And a bit more catching up now that the birds have gone quieter. This colour-ringed Dunlin was at Ferrybridge at the beginning of the month © Joe Stockwell:

...Joe's subsequently been informed that the bird was first ringed as a first-winter in Galicia, northwest Spain, in October 2013; it was resighted in the same area throughout the 2013-14 winter but in November 2014 was spotted again at the Banc d'Arguin in Mauritania (...do Dunlin routinely change their wintering areas or is this some sort of age-related feature?). The Ferrybridge sighting - when it was presumably stopping briefly on northbound migration - has been the only subsequent record of it. 

Ken Dolbear photographed this Small Barred Long-horn Adela croesella last week at Bottomcombe © Ken Dolbear:

...as far as we're aware this is only the second record for the island although, in common with other early season day-flyers, we suspect it's likely to have been overlooked by the regular 'birders who also look at bugs' who are too preoccupied with their birding during April and May.

28th May

The slip into very unsettled conditions continued, with storms tracking across the Channel both during the day and soon after dark. Bird-wise, it was an uneventful day: 2 Chiffchaffs and singles of Blackcap and Willow Warbler were at the Bill where 56 Manx Shearwaters, 6 Common Scoter, 2 Mediterranean Gulls and singles of Whimbrel, Great Skua and Black-headed Gull passed by on the sea; elsewhere 6 Canada Geese were at Chesil Cove.

The overnight immigrant moth selection at the Obs included 18 Diamond-back Moths, 5 Rusty-dot Pearl, 3 Rush Veneer, 2 Delicate and singles of Dark Sword Grass, Pearly Underwing and Small Mottled Willow trapped overnight at the Obs

Hummingbird Hawkmoths are being encountered pretty frequently at the moment © Joe Stockwell: