18th May

A change in the weather, with rain arriving before dawn and coming and going through the morning and early afternoon, was enough to prevent the Great Spotted Cuckoo from moving on and also pushed in a few seabirds: Chesil had a nice highlight in the form of a Long-tailed Skua that crossed the beach and headed away over Portland Harbour, whilst more routine fare included 50 commic terns, 3 Arctic Skuas, 2 Great Skuas and singles of Great Northern Diver and Pomarine Skua through there and 200 Manx Shearwaters, 4 each of Great Northern Diver and Great Skua, and singles of Red-throated Diver, Arctic Skua and Pomarine Skua through off the Bill. The conditions looked to satisfactory for some arrivals on the land, but in the event a lone Spotted Flycatcher was the only obvious new arrival on the ground at the Bill, elsewhere, a Turtle Dove showed up at Southwell. Swallows were still passing through in small numbers and a Hobby headed through at Verne Common.