Mainly overcast again today but feeling increasingly muggy on the few occasions the sun broke through. The season's first Yellow-browed Warbler had been on the cards for a day or two and duly pitched up in a mist-net at the Obs, whilst the 3 Wrynecks (2 in the Obs Quarry/beach huts area and the other at Barelycrates Lane) lingered on. Migrant-wise, things didn't really get beyond the ticking over level: another 50 Chiffchaffs made up the bulk of the numbers on the ground at the Bill, where less regular fare included singles of Knot, Snipe, Grasshopper Warbler and the first Siskin of the autumn, whilst elsewhere 40 Bar-tailed Godwits and a Curlew Sandpiper were the best on offer at Ferrybridge. Overhead, there were a few pulses of mainly Meadow Pipits and Swallows but it remained too overcast for passage to get going in earnest.
Immigrant moth activity was fairly subdued, with the tally from the Obs traps consisting of 24 Silver Y, 23 Rusty-dot Pearl, 21 Rush Veneer, 4 Pearly Underwing and a single Scarce Bordered Straw.
Bearing in mind the rate at which they've been arriving in Britain in recent days the autumn's first Yellow-browed Warbler certainly wasn't unexpected - even though we're only three days past the date of the island's earliest ever record © Martin Cade
