IN FOCUS SOUTH WEST Optics day this Sunday 15th Sept @PortlandBirdObs @DorsetBirdClub 01225 891352 for further info @opticronuk @SwarovskiOptik @ZEISSBirding @hawkeoptics @VortexOpticsUK and more @DorsetWildlife hoping for a big Shearwater and a fall pic.twitter.com/l4t748DrWf
— IN FOCUS SOUTH WEST (@MortimerKe93304) September 12, 2024
More northwesterlies, fewer migrants and, not long after darkness fell, the first single digit temperature of the autumn - all in all pretty grim. The only migrant on the up - very predictably at this juncture - was Meadow Pipit, with 200 through overhead at the Bill; the other expected overhead movers were also all represented but none in anything like that sort of number. Grounded arrivals were only sparsely spread, with 2 Common Sandpipers and singles of Whimbrel, Garden Warbler, Pied Flycatcher and Firecrest at the Bill (along with the lingering Marsh Harrier) and 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers at Thumb Lane the best on offer around the south of the island; waders on the up included Knot, of which there were 9 at Ferrybridge. Sea passage remained very pedestrian, with 120 Manx Shearwaters, 92 Kittiwakes, 7 Balearic Shearwaters, 4 Arctic Skuas and a Great Skua through off the Bill.
There are worse places to see the sun rise © Martin Cade:
Photo opportunities on the Obs patio this morning - Pied Flycatcher. Tree Pipit and Small Tortoiseshell © John Martin:
A few of the burgeoning Knot group at Ferrybridge © Pete Saunders:
