What looked to be a decent little arrival of grounded migrants was a surprise as a clear, calm and very dewy dawn broke but, sadly, the birds either moved on very quickly or we were getting ahead of ourselves at the sight of a little bit more than we've been used to just lately! In the event,
Sedge and
Willow Warblers were both in double figures but precious little else was uncovered bar a steady movement of
Swallows and
Sand Martins overhead. The wader tally remained steady, with 47
Ringed Plovers, 34
Dunlin and 6
Sanderling making up the bulk of the numbers at Ferybridge. Two
Yellow-legged Gulls and a lone
Balearic Shearwater were all that could be mustered by way of quality from the sea.
Thank goodness for insects just lately: it it weren't for them we'd have had some pretty thin blog posts in recent days. Today's highlight was the first fully confirmed island record of a Southern Migrant Hawker that was spotted by Ken Dolbear beside the lane on the west side of the Obs garden. There have been several previous reports both this year and last but none of these was supported by a photo so we don't know whether they'll prove acceptable to the national authorities (does anyone actually scrutinize the claims now that the species has become established elsewhere?) © Ken Dolbear:
