4th September

Rewards were few and far between again today although an early arrival of at least 34 Pale-bellied Brent Geese at Ferrybridge did provide something slightly out of the ordinary for the day's list. With the weather having remained pretty murky all night there were no real expectations of the land which at the Bill looked to be graced with little more than a thin scatter of Wheatears. The sea was also still quiet, with just 9 Common Scoter, 5 Manx Shearwaters and a single Balearic Shearwater through off the Bill. Other odds and ends of note included 2 Yellow-legged Gulls grounded at the Bill and 2 Mute Swans at Ferrybridge.

Another single Convolvulus Hawk-moth was the best of the overnight immigrant moth haul at the Obs that otherwise amounted to no more than 4 Rusty-dot Pearl and 3 Rush Veneer.

Although it's exceptionally early for them to be in these sort of numbers (there aren't that many September records of singles, let alone of a fair sized flock) this isn't actually the earliest autumn record of Pale-bellied Brent - there was a single at Ferrybridge on 31st August and 1st September 2012 © Angela Thomas