A mixed bag today with plenty of names on the list, but little to write home about. Passerine migrants were reasonably varied but with few individuals of each. A total of seven
Wheatears were present throughout the obs area as well as 25
Willow Warblers and singles of
Grasshopper Warbler,
Sedge Warbler and
Reed Warbler. The sea had a similar vibe with the same sort of variety as previous days but with lower numbers of all. Of note was a
Puffin (especially notable given the departure of 'our' cliff-nesting auks so pretty certain to be a non-local bird)), otherwise 31
Manx Shearwaters, two
Balearic Shearwaters, five
Yellow-
legged Gulls and a single
Whimbrel made up the majority of the sea sightings. Ferrybridge maintained its recent form but with
Greenshank the only new addition.
Ferrybridge continued to provide a nice selection of photo opportunities; Common Tern © Pete Saunders...
...Turnstone and Kestrel © Will Bown:
Whilst a pretty photo is all well and good, there's so often a little back story to the bird itself that's easy to pass over if you look no further than the photo. In this case we were intrigued by still further evidence of Ferrybridge being such a mini melting pot of gulls from all over the place: this Black-headed Gull was originally ringed in Norway (the full details haven't been received yet)...
...whilst less than a month ago this Mediterranean Gull was ringed as a pullus in Vendée, France - thanks to Debby Saunders for the information © Debby Saunders:
