29th September

With there still being precious few reasons for migrants to drop out of the crystal clear night sky it remained largely quiet on the ground, where 2 new Firecrests at the Obs were a pretty minor highlight amongst small numbers of other very routine arrivals. It was considerably busier overhead with some strong pulses of Swallows and House Martins in particular heading through into the brisk easterly; all the expected pipits, wagtails and finches were also well represented, with higher quality coming in the form of a Red Kite that did a circuit of the island, 6 Crossbills over Suckthumb, a Hobby over Barleycrates and 2 Merlins, 2 Short-eared Owls and a Hobby over the Bill.

Moth interest diminished considerably, with the lowest immigrant total at the Obs - just 3 individuals - since 23rd June; the only scarcer species making the list were a Delicate at West Grove Terrace and a Convolvulus Hawk-moth visiting Nicotiana flowers there at dusk.

 

 

Red Kite and Convolvulus Hawk-moth - Chesil Cove and the Grove, 29th September 2015 © Matt Phipps (Red Kite) and Martin Cade (Convolvulus Hawk)

 

Although we'd imagined that migrants must have been streaming over during the recent clear nights it would seem from Nick Hopper's latest evidence that wasn't the case during the first few hours of last night. Up to the time of compiling this update Nick's only had a chance to go through his recordings made between dusk and midnight, but during that period he logged just 15 birds; interestingly though, these did include two species we haven't yet been seeing during the daylight hours: the first 3 Redwings of the autumn were particularly noteworthy: 

 

 

...whilst 10 Song Thrushes were hopefully also a sign of things to come as late autumn passage gathers momentum:

 

 

Finally, a few odds and ends from the Crown Estate Field today where through being less than burdened during net-rounds we were reduced to aimless meandering with the camera - Linnet, Greenland Wheatear, Hobby and Merlin all popped up at various times (all © Martin Cade):