9th September

Despite the conditions turning out decidedly more clement than expected migrant interest was minimal, with even the usually reliably numerous Wheatears reduced to barely more than a double figure total at the Bill, where there was little else of note either on the ground or overhead. The sea provided a little more interest, with 18 Balearic Shearwaters, a Manx Shearwater and an Arctic Skua amongst a light passage off the Bill. Ferrybridge came up with 14 Bar-tailed Godwits, 4 Sanderling, a Redshank and a Yellow-legged Gull amongst more routine fare.

Numbers of the commoner immigrant moths dropped away on a pretty breezy night, with singles of Convolvulus Hawk-moth and White-speck at the Grove the best of the oddities; a presumed Neglected Rustic was of note at the Obs.

Although a pretty raggedy specimen we think we're seeing enough on this moth trapped overnight at the Obs to be pretty sure it's a Neglected Rustic; if it is, it's only the second island record of this heathland species © Martin Cade


As promised, Nick Hopper has kindly sent us through a report on the second of his two nights sound recording earlier in the week - Monday night, 5th/6th September. If waders were the feature group on Sunday night then it was very much passerines that were to the fore on Monday. It was another very busy night with Tree Pipits dominating, but the highlight was 2 Ortolan Buntings: the first recorded  at 22.45hrs just after Nick had heard one a few hundred metres away whilst out logging calls by ear, and the second at 01.40hrs. The recording below is the best of the two - the last call is easily audible but the first call (at 1.5 seconds) is a little harder to hear. Tree Pipits were calling almost continuously for large parts of the night; clearly many birds were lingering in the air once drizzle had set in an hour or so after dark, but lulls in activity did suggest that eventually birds were moving on. To give an idea of the spectacle, at its peak over 1000 calls an hour were recorded! Robins were also prominent and peaked at around 100 calls an hour before tailing off significantly after midnight. Other passerine callers were Spotted and Pied Flycatcher and Yellow Wagtail. Among the non-passerines a Common Scoter was a good record, whilst the usual suspects - including Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot and Turnstone - featured amongst the waders; in contrast to the night before no Greenshank and just a single Green Sandpiper were logged. Interestingly, and as has been heard before during these nocturnal sessions, some waders were breaking into song: mostly Dunlin but also a Common Sandpiper seemingly attempting to sing.