27th August

Numbers remained hard to come by on a breezier than expected day although compensation came with a Marsh Warbler turning up in the mist-nets at Culverwell at dawn. Sadly, this early excitement wasn't the harbinger of good things to come as common migrant tally remained stubbornly low: there were a trickle of Yellow Wagtails and Tree Pipits overhead but on the ground only Wheatear and Whitethroat managed double figure totals at the Bill, where 2 departing Ospreys overhead and singles of Pied Flycatcher and Firecrest on the ground were the only worthwhile oddities; elsewhere, a Serin at Coombefield was a real oddity for this time of year (...we're not sure that there are any previous records for the month of August). The sea continued to tick over although conspicuously less busily than yesterday, with 101 Kittiwakes, 80 Manx Shearwaters, 19 Balearic Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Skuas and a Yellow-legged Gull the best of the totals from the Bill. The morning's Ferrybridge wader tally included 140 Ringed Plover, 19 Turnstones, 3 Sanderlings and singles of Whimbrel, Redshank and Common Sandpiper.

We're running late this evening so we'll have to save the extra details on the Marsh Warbler until tomorrow; in the meanwhile a few phone photos of it: