This morning's immigrant/dispersing moths from the Obs traps: 13 Diamond-back Moth, 3 Silver Y, 2 Rusty-dot Pearl, 2 Rush Veneer and singles of Maiden's Blush and Green Silver-lines.
Goshawk and Bee-eaters - East Weare and Portland Bill © Keith Pritchard gullsandterns.blogspot (Goshawk) and Martin Cade (Bee-eaters)
...as something of a local quirk, Goshawk is a much, much higher value rarity at Portland than Bee-eater, with today's bird being only the second of the few records to be photo-documented; quite why the last three records should have all occurred in the month of May seems particularly baffling - what's all that about?
We didn't get time yesterday to mention that whilst wandering about the middle of the island looking for migrants we stumbled upon our 'mixed-singing' chiffchaff still seemingly holding territory in some trees behind the fire station at Easton that we hadn't visited since we last saw it there a fortnight ago. It appears now to have an even more arrestingly weird repertoire than it had before; have a listen to this compilation of song phrases that we recorded over the half-hour or so that we were with it:
In appearance it looks likes a bright but scruffy Chiffchaff, with certain aspects of its plumage and structure bearing some resemblance to Iberian Chiffchaff; at close range it even looks to have a moult limit in the primaries, although the seemingly older outer feathers vs newer inner ones is the opposite to what is now known to be a feature of some spring Iberians:
We again had a go at playing various recording to it and it still gives an at times very strong reaction to Iberian Chiffchaff song, whereupon it comes shooting out of the trees almost as soon as the recording's played:
We didn't get time yesterday to mention that whilst wandering about the middle of the island looking for migrants we stumbled upon our 'mixed-singing' chiffchaff still seemingly holding territory in some trees behind the fire station at Easton that we hadn't visited since we last saw it there a fortnight ago. It appears now to have an even more arrestingly weird repertoire than it had before; have a listen to this compilation of song phrases that we recorded over the half-hour or so that we were with it:
In appearance it looks likes a bright but scruffy Chiffchaff, with certain aspects of its plumage and structure bearing some resemblance to Iberian Chiffchaff; at close range it even looks to have a moult limit in the primaries, although the seemingly older outer feathers vs newer inner ones is the opposite to what is now known to be a feature of some spring Iberians:
We again had a go at playing various recording to it and it still gives an at times very strong reaction to Iberian Chiffchaff song, whereupon it comes shooting out of the trees almost as soon as the recording's played:
