19th July

More of the same today, with fair weather bringing forth a good bit of migrant activity on the ground, overhead and on the sea. Grounded arrivals at the Bill included 2 Sedge Warblers, a Common Sandpiper and a Yellow Wagtail but passage there was much more conspicuous overhead, where c200 Sand Martins, c 100 Swallows, 22 Swifts and a Siskin passed through. The sea was also busy, with 97 Mediterranean Gulls, 67 Common Scoter, 26 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 21 Yellow-legged Gulls, 4 Manx Shearwaters, 2 Whimbrel and singles of Great Northern Diver, Storm Petrel and Puffin passed by, with a few more Yellow-legged Gulls and 2 Arctic Skuas lingering offshore. Ferrybridge totals included 47 Dunlin, a Sanderling and a Whimbrel.

As we'd hoped it would, a juvenile Cirl Bunting eventually turned up in a mist-net - whether it's the only one about remains to be seen but, thus far, only single juveniles have been seen since the first sighting the weekend before last. We have been asked about the visibility of these birds but can't really give any indication that they're anything other than extremely elusive: this was actually the first time we'd seen a/the juvenile, there's been no conclusive sighting of a female for ages and on the odd occasions that the male pops up it can be pretty well anywhere around the south of the Bill - yesterday it made visits to Culverwell, the Obs and the QinetiQ compound, singing briefly at each but not lingering at any of them © Martin Cade