28th July

In really grim conditions much more akin to November than late July pretty well all of the day's interest was offshore. A Great Shearwater that appeared briefly twice off the Bill was presumably the lingerer from earlier in the week although given the conditions that might not have been an altogether safe assumption; Balearic Shearwaters also were a constant presence there but with movement in both directions and plenty lingering it was impossible to be sure how many birds were involved, with 25 perhaps a conservative minimum. With a lot more lingering than actual passage it was tricky to get a handle of many of the other Bill totals for the day, but 60 Manx Shearwaters, 16 Common Scoter, 3 Storm Petrels, 3 Yellow-legged Gulls, 3 Arctic Skuas and singles of Sooty Shearwater, Great Skua and Pomarine Skua looked to safe minima. The only other reports were of a handful of Willow Warblers at the Obs and 24 Sandwich Terns, a Knot and a Yellow-legged Gull at Ferrybridge.

Moth interest diminished still further, with 3 Rusty-dot Pearl the only immigrants caught overnight at the Obs.

Please note that for the next fortnight timely blog and Twitter updates are likely to be interrupted whilst we're away on holiday - normal activities at the Obs will be carrying on as usual and we'll try and convey the highlights as and when we can.

Just one of an awful lot of sightings of Balearic Shearwaters today © Martin Cade: