A week away on holiday hasn't been conducive to keeping up with daily updates but normal service should resume now we're back in circulation. Whilst the weather during our absence had been propitious for sitting on Cornish headlands it hadn't been much cop for passerine migration so today's quieter conditions were both welcome and rewarding, with the autumn's best grounded arrival to date. With no reports from other island passerine spots - is anyone watching them? - it was left to a few stalwarts to get amongst a good little drop of standard early season fare at the Bill that included 70 Wheatears, 60 Willow Warblers, 30 Sedge Warblers, 8 Garden Warblers and a Reed Warbler, with 60 Sand Martins, 50 Swallows, 3 Ringed Plovers and 3 Tree Pipits on the move overhead. Ferrybridge was also well-watched and returned totals that included 330 Mediterranean Gulls, 116 Ringed Plovers, 54 Dunlin, 26 Sandwich Terns, 5 Sanderling, a Whimbrel and a Redshank. A steady movement of 36 Sandwich Terns accounted for the bulk of the numbers off the Bill, where 12 Manx Shearwaters, 6 Dunlin, 6 commic terns, 2 Arctic Skuas, a Balearic Shearwater and a Common Scoter were amongst the miscellany also on the move.
A couple of Whimbrel and a Knot were amongst the waders forced down at Ferrybridge by yesterday's wind and rain © Pete Saunders:
