Oh Mister Porter (written by George Le Brunn 1892)

Oh Mr. Porter, what shall I do?
I want to go to Birmingham
but here I am at Crewe.
Take me back to London
as quickly as you can,
Oh Mr. Porter what a silly girl I am.

Had it not been for the candid and honest admission by the Warden of the Portland Bird Observatory of rushing the Moth Traps some days ago we to would also have forgotten an important capture ourselves, which has laid in the archive ever since. With 6 balls in the air already it was simply good fortune that our friend Marcus Lawson happened along and asked if he might have a rummage through the traps, to keep his eye in, and came up with a rarity! The nondescript

PORTER'S RUSTIC

(ours captured on 29/06/2021) is described by the 'authority' that is
Bernard Skinner as only having been recorded in England 64 times, which would surely stand updating.

 Nonetheless, it can be seen that we have dusted off the cobwebs of our particular capture, and presented to our valued readership, which holds the distinction of Moth of the Year thus far!

Otherwise our rapidly deminishing catches continue the downward trend with only c2

JERSEY TIGER MOTHs

and a second generation

CREAM-BORDERED GREEN PEA
which is about the size that the vegetable suggests.

Unlike the coastal headlands of Dorset, such as Hengistbury Head and Portland Bill, we get very few migrant birds as a rule, but for the last couple of days that trend seems to have altered.

Firstly, it was a single

SPOTTED FLYCARCHER
only ever seen once in the garden and then followed by a number of juvenile

GREY WAGTAILs

with this one

taking up a Feeding Station atop of the highest tree

and bunkering maybe for

for the journey to come, there were 14 counted in all

before the second

SPOTTED FLYCATCH
arrived.