12th May

With a profound change in the weather afoot - an unsettled southerly/southwesterly airflow replacing the dry northeasterlies that have been established for so long - hopes of a late flourish of migrants have been put on hold for the time being and the sea's had most of the attention. Pomarine Skuas featured again, with a total of 16 through off the Bill; 69 Common Scoter, 50 Manx Shearwaters, 20 commic terns, 5 Common Gulls, 4 Arctic Skuas, 3 Red-throated Divers, 3 Great Northern Divers and 3 Mediterranean Gulls were also logged there, whilst 2 Great Skuas were an addition to the tally from Chesil Cove. There were new arrivals on the land and even a fair bit of variety at the Bill but nothing featured in any quantity and a tardy Goldcrest was the only minor oddity there.

Showery rain tracking across the Channel and introducing milder air looked have some potential for immigrant moth activity but in the event the Obs moth-traps returned overnight totals of just 5 Silver Y, 3 Diamond-back Moth and 2 Dark Sword Grass.

Another day, another flock of Poms © Ted Pressey:




Finally, we couldn't resist a quick nocturnal nip across to Lodmoor to listen to the singing Spotted Crake that had been found there this evening: