In a shake up from yesterday, the morning was gloriously warm and breeze-free and slowly descended into a wet and windy evening. Some more signs of wader passage included the first autumn
Little-
ringed Plover, three
Black-
tailed Godwits and a single
Curlew at Ferrybridge. Passerine migration continues at a slow trickle with low double figures of
Sand Martins, the second dispersing
Grey Wagtail of the autumn, and a smattering of the lingering
Phylloscs. The sea produced a couple of points of interest including four
Little Egrets in off, singles of
Arctic and
Great Skua, a lone
Balearic Shearwater,
the usual selection of
Common Scoters and
Mediterranean Gulls in small numbers
and 2
Yellow-
legged Gulls consorting with
the now much diminished gull flocks; a third
Yellow-legged Gull also dropped in at Ferrybridge.
It was certainly a day of two halves: the Black-tailed Godwits at Ferrybridge were bathed in the lovely soft sunlight of a millpond-calm dawn but by evening the Yellow-legged Gull there was being buffeted by the stiff breeze that preceded an impending downpour © Pete Saunders (the godwits) and Martin Cade (the gull):
Moth interest has dwindled away since the heady days of the Silver Barred and Bright Wave so some minor signs of dispersal kicking in again were more than welcome: Pine Hawkmoth and Gorse Knot-horn Pempelia genistella were both less than annual captures at the Obs overnight © Martin Cade:
