A note for Obs members: we've recently been mailing out copies of the 2015 annual report but there are a few members for whom we don't have a current/correct postal address; if you think you're a paid-up Obs member and haven't received your report please get in touch so we can clear up these issues. Thanks.
The recent switch to a colder northerly airflow hasn't prompted nearly as much late passage as might have been expected and today continued in that vein. Wood Pigeons were again departing to the south in relatively small numbers - including 1500 over the Bill - but most of the day's other movement involved a light trickle of northbound thrushes and finches, including 130 Chaffinches over the Bill; a tardy lone Swallow also passed through at the Bill. Numbers on the ground looked to be very low everywhere: the Siberian Lesser Whitethroat remained at the Obs, but a single Woodcock was the only other minor oddity among the handful of new thrushes, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests and Reed Buntings at the Bill. Seawatching at the Bill came up with 16 Common Scoter, 3 Red-throated Divers, 2 Brent Geese and a Wigeon, a Pomarine Skua passed through Portland Harbour and 19 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Mallards, 2 Grey Plover and singles of Pintail, Redshank and Kittiwake were the best of the bunch at Ferrybridge.