A pretty wild day with the coast taking a battering and land if not quite unbirdable then decidedly unpleasant for any forays into the field. The sea got most of the attention, with watches at the Bill coming up with 150
Manx Shearwaters, 55
Common Scoter, 24
Sandwich Terns, 14
Eider, 3
Arctic Skuas and a
Red-breasted Merganser. An
Osprey passed over at Southwell during the evening but on the ground it was hard work getting amongst what little seemed to be about - 10
Chiffchaffs, 7
Wheatears, 2
Sand Martins and singles of
White Wagtail,
Wheatear and
Goldcrest constituted the meagre tally at the Bill, with 2
Black Redstarts and the
'Eastern' Lesser Whitethroat at Southwell the best from elsewhere.
A lone
Dark Sword Grass caught overnight at the Obs was the year's first immigrant moth.
There was all the look and feel of a full blown mid-winter storm about proceedings at the Bill...
...but it was well worth getting a battering for this flock of Eider (with thanks in particular to Charlie Richards for giving us the heads-up that they were on the way from Chesil Cove) © Martin Cade:
