21st October

The dregs of Hurricane Gonzalo did nothing to improve the quality of the birding today, with a blasting north-westerly ensuring that much of the land was unbirdable and there was little or no proper sea passage. Two Ring Ouzels were found in the relative shelter of Penn's Weare but there was little else of note on the land bar a single Merlin and a steady but unquantified southbound passage of finches and a few hirundines at the Bill. Although there were plenty of routine seabirds feeding off the Bill, which attracted the attentions of 2 Great Skuas and 2 Arctic Skuas, the only passage concerned 2 Balearic Shearwaters and a single Great Northern Diver through. The Black Brant and Pale-bellied Brent were amongst the brent flock at Ferrybridge, where 2 Kittiwakes also passed through.

An unsurprisingly poor overnight catch of immigrant moths included 7 Rusty-dot Pearl and singles of Delicate and Silver Y at the Obs.



Kittiwake - Ferrybridge, 21st October 2014 © Pete Saunders