13th October

After yesterday's flush of scarcities today was quite an odd day with the best arrival of Yellow-browed Warblers to date - at least 12 were discovered scattered through the usual hotspots for this now entirely expected migrant - but far less by way of routine late autumn fare than might have been hoped. A selection of oddities uncovered or still about included the Red-breasted Flycatcher and a/the Siberian Lesser Whitethroat at the Bill, single Dartford Warblers at the Bill and East Weare and a Long-eared Owl at the Grove, whilst there were a series of frustrating heard-only fly-overs that escaped being clinched. Siskins continued to feature overhead with another 95 through over the Bill, but commoner migrants were for the most part inexplicably few and far between on the ground with, for example, just one Redwing at the Bill on a day after many tens of thousands had been on the move not all that far away - migration can be really strange! With the breeze having switched back to the northwest sea interest was limited to a few hundred auks and 2 Balearic Shearwaters through off the Bill.

Yellow-browed Warblers were all over the place today © Nick Hopper...


...and they were still coming out of the woodwork at dusk: this one popped up literally after sunset at the Grove - once it dropped into thick cover it was barely resolvable with the naked eye but cameras are so good these days that with a massive iso setting it was still possible to get a perfectly acceptable record shot © Martin Cade:


The Red-breasted Flycatcher led folk a merry dance today: it was first retrapped at dawn at Culverwell but then variously turned up in the Strips, in the middle of the Crown Estate Field, at the Obs and at the Privet Hedge - we're struggling to think of a passerine that's ever done anything like that before! © Martin Cade: