13th June

Bar the Great Spotted Cuckoo that continued to give would-be observers the run-around, morsels of interest on a damp morning included singles of Hobby and Reed Warbler new at the Bill and 10 Manx Shearwaters and 9 Common Scoter through on the sea there. The only other reports were of a Grey Wagtail over Blacknor and a lone Dunlin at Ferrybridge.

We've been doing a bit of work in recent days on this spring's migrant totals which, overall, don't look too bad. As usual there are winners and losers that are perhaps easiest to identify from the ringing totals (almost exclusively this year Obs garden totals since Culverwell was hardly worked).
2013
2014
2015
2013-15 mean
2016
Redstart
22
30
48
33
43
Sedge Warbler
62
43
21
42
20
Reed Warbler
29
30
9
22
27
Lesser Whitethroat
7
6
8
7
5
Whitethroat
95
159
53
102
38
Garden Warbler
66
61
52
59
27
Blackcap
432
243
246
307
509
Chiffchaff
406
414
552
457
455
Willow Warbler
502
1196
888
862
1032
Goldcrest
67
6
28
33
60
Firecrest
23
6
19
16
13
Spotted Flycatcher
101
48
32
60
43
Pied Flycatcher
3
12
1
5
7

Of the 'big three' commonest migrants Blackcap and Willow Warbler were both well up on their recent averages, whilst Chiffchaff was on pretty well level par; not surprisingly after last autumn's glut, Goldcrest also fared well. The losers were all amongst the middle tier species, with Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher struggling at around half of their recent average totals and Whitethroat barely managing even a third of the recent average. More on this in the next few days when we'll also have a look at the spring's ringing recoveries.