Someone's hit repeat - weather and birds - and this time round we're not getting nearly as much mileage out of it as we did last week. The unbroken sunshine was pleasant but did few favours on the migrant front with most of the numbers overhead, including 130
Starlings, 100
Wood Pigeons, 85
Chaffinches, 80
Stock Doves, 22
Redwings, 5
Bramblings, 2
Siskins and a
Swallow through at the Bill. The odd few new arrivals on the ground there included several
Blackbirds, a
Short-eared Owl and a
Chiffchaff, with 4 more of the latter, 3
Goldcrests, 2
Black Redstarts, 2
Blackcaps and singles of
Water Rail,
Moorhen and
Siberian Chiffchaff lingering on there. The sea got plenty of attention, with a minimum of 500 lingering
Mediterranean Gulls dominated proceedings off the Bill; 150
Common Gulls and 10
Black-headed Gulls were amongst them and 3
Brent Geese, 3
Teal, 2
Pintail, a
Red-throated Diver and a
Shoveler passed by there. Elsewhere, the
Common Scoter was still at Ferrybridge.
Very few if any of the Short-eared Owls that have passed though this autumn have hung around which has been a bit of a surprise since there seems to be a lot of voles about - we'll see if today's bird that showed up at last light at the Bill proves to be any different © Peter McSweeney:
