24th August

The current weather situation is beginning to get tiresome, with the almost continual rain generated by a depression centred over northern France spoiling attempts to get amongst what looked to be an interesting selection of new arrivals. Ferrybridge at least often comes good when other sites are unbirdable and today proved to be no exception, with a varied throughput of waders and terns in particular that included 4 Little Terns, 3 Ruff, 2 Black-tailed Godwits and singles of Grey Plover, Little Stint, Knot, Common Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Black Tern, Common Gull and Yellow-legged Gull; a Green Sandpiper over the Grove was an addition to the wader tally from elsewhere, whilst the Bill came up with 4 Redshanks, 2 Dunlin and a Ringed Plover. Passerine hunting was really restricted to brief dry spells just after dawn and shortly before dusk, when 40 Wheatears, 15 Willow Warblers, 10 Tree Pipits, 6 Spotted Flycatchers, 5 Whinchats, 2 Redstarts and a Sedge Warbler were among the discoveries at the Bill.

Immigrant moths didn't feature in any great quantity, with the tally of individuals from the Obs traps only just scraping into double figures; a Convolvulus Hawk-moth at the Obs and single Vestals at Sweethill and West Grove Terrace were the best of the oddities.



Convolvulus Hawk-moth - The Grove, 24th August 2105 © Martin Cade
 
In views of events not too far away, we spent a fair while on a wader 'listen' after dark last evening but, sadly, our hoped-for Wood Sandpiper didn't feature in a tally of small numbers of routine fare; a 'more than one' party of Green Sandpipers was about as good as it got:
 


...we were also quite intrigued by the variety of calls from a group of Grey Herons that arrived from the north and sounded like they were going to leave out to sea but chickened out and headed back north: