23rd October

A few hours of relative calm under a heavily overcast sky afforded some prospect of tapping into new arrivals after dawn, with the trapping of the third Common Rosefinch of the autumn (like the other two, this was again at the Obs) the principal reward. A fly-over Snow Bunting at the Bill was a first for the season, whilst further scarcity interest there came in the form of the reappearance of one of yesterday's Caspian Gulls, the lingering Hen Harrier, 3 Black Redstarts, 2 Short-eared Owls, at least 1 Merlin and a Firecrest. There were extra common migrants about but they were hardly a spectacle to behold: with so much cloud cover overhead passage was largely a non-event, but the first multiple arrival of Goldcrests (...where are they all?) was noteworthy on the ground. The day's spectacle was undoubtedly the extraordinary numbers of Mediterranean Gulls lingering offshore, with the logged minimum of 2000 looking at times to be very conservative.

This autumn's Common Rosefinches haven't exactly been co-operative and although today's bird did remain visible for a while after release it wasn't exactly showy © Martin Cade:


We happened to have the nocmig recorder still running when the Snow Bunting flew over: