20th October

Pretty much all change with the weather and the birding today...and mostly not for the better. With the best part of a gale force westerly blowing at dawn it was always going to be difficult getting amongst what was about but eventually a few morsels of interest did make the day's list: single Yellow-browed Warblers were at Sweethill and Avalanche Road, a lone Black Redstart was at the Bill, a Ring Ouzel was at Suckthumb Quarry, at least 3 Hawfinches put in brief appearances at Pennsylvania Castle/Perryfields and a Green Woodpecker was at the Grove Stadium; inevitably there was also still a good spread of Firecrests, with about 40 spread widely around the centre and south of the island. Routine passage more or less fizzled out, with Swallows the only passing migrants in any numbers overhead and grounded numbers reduced to a fraction of what they'd been in recent days. The sea was well watched at times but produced little more than singles of Balearic Shearwater and Sooty Shearwater through off the Bill.

The less said about the overnight moth catch the better, with scarcely a shred of evidence that yesterday's immigration episode had ever happened.