6th September

The damp, murky conditions overnight dropped a host of migrants down to an audible height but by dawn most had managed to get away; that said, there was still a decent enough spread of grounded and overflying arrivals to keep both the ringers and fieldworkers happy. The Bill area got the best of the coverage, which revealed 100 Wheatears, 50 Sedge Warblers and 20 phylloscs (Chiffchaffs on the up as Willow Warblers tail off) making up the bulk of the numbers on the ground and 41 Grey Wagtails being a good total amongst the hirundines, pipits and wagtails overhead; variety there included the likes of 6 Redstarts, 3 Whinchats, 2 Grasshopper Warblers and 2 Pied Flycatchers. Coverage elsewhere was scant but there were suggestions from the pockets of activity in certain areas of cover that the Bill might have been the poor relation when it came to phyllosc and flycatcher numbers. The millpond calm conditions hardly favoured seawatching, but 64 Common Scoter and an Eider were of note off the Bill. The Ferrybridge Bar-tailed Godwit total was still an unseasonably high 23, with 4 Sanderling and a Knot adding to the mix there.

Sadly, predictions of an immigrant moth bonanza in the muggy conditions proved wide of the mark, with 15 Rush Veneer, 14 Rusty-dot Pearl, 11 Silver Y, 2 Diamond-back Moth, 2 Dark Sword Grass and a White-speck constituting the overnight catch in the Obs traps.

Ferrybridge again came up with plenty of wader activity © Debby Saunders


And the overcast skies of recent days had cleared by evening © Martin Cade