1st November

Another lovely day, at least until mid-afternoon when a freshening breeze and sharp drop in the temperature heralded the arrival of a cold front slipping down from the north. Two Spoonbills that dropped in at Ferrybridge and a Yellow-browed Warbler that spent the afternoon in the Obs garden provided the only rarity interest on a day when commoner migrants weren't moving overhead in quite the numbers that might have been expected and weren't grounded in any quantity at all. Visible passage over the Bill included relatively small numbers of many of the expected late autumn migrants, amongst which 150 Wood Pigeons, 115 Starlings and 13 Redpolls were of note. The situation there on the ground was similar, with 10 Reed Buntings and 3 Mistle Thrushes amongst the thin spread of routine fare; elsewhere, a Kingfisher was an unexpected sighting at Reap Lane. Three Brent Geese and a lone Teal passed through on the sea at the Bill, whilst 270 Mediterranean Gulls, 25 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Grey Plovers and a Shelduck were amongst the waterfowl at Ferrybridge.

Two each of Olive-tree Pearl and Gem at Sweethill were the pick of the night's immigrant moths; the tally at the Obs comprised 33 Rusty-dot Pearl, 20 Rush Veneer, 13 Diamond-back Moth, 4 Silver Y and 2 Dark Sword Grass.

The second Spoonbill record in a little over a week © Matt Phipps 



Not that there's any reason to suppose that some Chaffinches passing through the Netherlands don't later pass through Portland, but we can't recollect that we've actually ever had any tangible evidence of that fact until this morning when this ringed bird dropped into Culverwell: