3rd May

In terms of migrant numbers the recent lacklustre spell continued and, with the breeze having taken an offshore shift, the sea wasn't able to save the day. Willow Warblers just about reached the 50 mark on the ground at the Bill where passing Swallows amounted to about 400; otherwise the only real interest came in form of a few less frequent migrants that included 9 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 White Wagtails and singles of Hobby, Wood Warbler and Jay at the Bill and the lingering Turtle Dove at Southwell. The sea mustered a short, sharp movement of more than 300 Manx Shearwaters through off the Bill soon after dawn, but no more than 2 Great Skuas there and a single Pomarine Skua over Ferrybridge by way of proper passage.

The Jay trapped at the Obs (it looked to be the same individual that visited the Bill a couple of days ago) was only the fourth ever ringed there and the first since 1993 © Martin Cade:

The Turtle Dove lingered on at Southwell © Debby Saunders:

As a rather simplistic gauge of just how many spring arrivals we haven't seen dropping in on the coast this spring we were interested to hear from John Lucas this morning that his still incomplete census of territorial male Whitethroats at the Bill is already up to 17 birds - just one short of last year's final total of breeding males there; since our Obs and Culverwell spring ringing total of Whitethroats stands at only 25 there must have already been an awful lot of Whitethroats - and no doubt other summer migrants - that didn't have to make landfall on the coast this season © Martin Cade: