Lovely weather, lots of fieldwork...no birds - well, that's a slight exaggeration but there was a lot less than might have been hoped on this date even if the conditions were way too nice to have expected a good drop of migrants. Grounded arrivals at the Bill did include 4
Whinchats, 2
Snipe, 2
Spotted Flycatchers and a
Pied Flycatcher amongst the thin spread of more routine fare; the long-staying
Marsh Harrier was also still there, whilst at Ferrybridge the
Sanderling tally upped a notch to 10 and a
Yellow-legged Gull was new in. Far more was expected overhead but in the event passage was really slow: a
Honey Buzzard heading south over East Weare was nice and a
Cattle Egret arriving from the south over the Bill was still a good island record but movement of
pipits,
wagtails and
hirundines gathered no momentum at all and an early
Reed Bunting over the Bill was the only other very minor oddity.
Kittiwakes and
auks were still moving in fair numbers off the Bill - 275 and 229 respectively were logged during the morning - with 53
Common Scoter, 9
Balearic Shearwaters and 5
Arctic Skuas also through there.
Despite record numbers trapped at Culverwell, overhead passage of Grey Wagtails has actually been well below average so far this autumn; we'd guess this ringed bird visiting a garden pond at Sweethill is one of the Culverwell birds and it'll be interesting to see if it hangs around - hitherto, none of the birds ringed on migration at the Bill have ever been either retrapped or suspected of wintering on the island (there is a small winter population here) © Debby Saunders:
