PBO

Portland Bird Observatory is located on Portland Bill at the eastern extremity of Lyme Bay, a bit less than 20 miles along the coast from West Bay. Staying there for a couple of nights has been on my to-do list for ages, and now finally is ticked off.

I arrived late on Monday afternoon. There was very, very little in the way of migrants, but still it was nice to plod about the Bill area, seeing nothing and imagining what tomorrow might bring...

Looking south towards the Bill lighthouse. PBO is located at the old Lower Light, far left.

Tomorrow didn't bring much in fact. The habitat looks full of promise, but was not full of birds. A few pics from Tuesday...

Whinchat, one of three seen during my stay.

Yellow Wagtail. They never stop.

Wheatear

Many of the Bill area fields are given over to horses, so there is much tightly-grazed turf. Wagtails like it, and picking through the odd group of alba wags for potential White Wagtail is always fun. White Wagtail - especially in autumn - is one of a number of birds where, if you think possibly you've got one, you almost certainly haven't. Whereas the genuine article is usually quite obvious. Like this one...

White Wagtail. I saw five in total.

Flukey shot showing extensive pale grey rump, characteristic of White Wag.

Yesterday dawned with a shift in the wind. The fairly brisk NNE livened things up no end, with a constant stream of birds heading into it, particularly Meadow Pipits and Swallows. My morning walks produced around 50 Wheatears, and with phylloscs in the bushes, it felt quite birdy. Poking around the top fields shortly before 10:30 I got especially jammy...

Wryneck being coy.

Amazingly this is Portland's first Wryneck of the autumn (of the year?) and as such was much appreciated, especially when it later put on a bit of a show...

A major bonus for me were the PBO moths. Here are a couple I hope to see in the garden trap one day...

Delicate. A fairly regular migrant that has so far avoided our trap.

Radford's Flame Shoulder. A bit scarcer, this one.

And here's one I should like to see in the trap, but shan't be holding my breath over...

Beautiful Marbled. What a little stunner!

I think I shall be back...

PBO