28th October

Once an early pulse of visible passage had fizzled out an unwelcome end of the season feel begun to descend on proceedings: the clear, cold night had seen to it that grounded arrivals were in short supply, whilst the impressive off-passage gatherings of the likes of Meadow Pipits and Linnets that have been a feature for so long are gradually dwindling away. It was overhead passage that accounted for all the numbers today, with 2000 Wood Pigeons, 46 Redpolls, 45 Redwings, 16 Fieldfares, 11 Bramblings and a Mistle Thrush amongst the pulse of movement over the Bill in the morning. Goldcrests looked to account for the bulk of the new arrivals on the ground, with 25 at the Bill and a fair spread elsewhere; 8 Firecrests, 4 Purple Sandpipers, 3 Bullfinches, 2 Black Redstarts and a Woodlark were the best of the scarce migrants at the Bill, with a Yellow-browed Warbler also remaining at Avalanche Road.

Nor surprisingly, moth numbers took a tumble overnight with 9 Silver Y, 5 Rusty-dot Pearl, 4 Pearly Underwing, 4 Cosmopolitan, 3 Delicate, 2 Vestal, 2 Dark Sword Grass and a White-speck constituting the immigrant tally at the Obs.

Redpolls have begun to feature quite well in the morning flurries of finches - it'll be interesting to discover where the two birds that were trapped at the Bill yesterday and found to be bearing rings from elsewhere hailed from. This bird today dropped in at Southwell © Debby Saunders:



And back to yesterday for a photo we quite liked but didn't notice it time to include on the blog posting - these Ring Ouzels were in Top Fields © Simon Colenutt thedeskboundbirder: