7th November

The return of wind and later rain saw plenty of attention given to the sea, with 31 Common Scoter, 4 Eider, 2 Brent Geese and singles of Red-throated Diver, Velvet Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser and Great Skua logged at the Bill. It was dry enough through the morning to be able to give the land a few looks but it appeared as though there had been few new arrivals, with 3 Redwings and singles of Fieldfare, Firecrest and Brambling at the Bill, 4 Bramblings and 2 Chiffchaffs at Southwell, a Black Redstart at Chesil Cove and 45 Oystercatchers, 6 Pale-bellied Brent Geese and singles of Snipe and Bar-tailed Godwit at Ferrybridge.

Several of the Southwell Bramblings remained in residence today © Pete Saunders:

It's not very often that anyone gets an opportunity to photograph a Snipe at Portland - at least not in anything other than a bitter cold spell - so this one at Ferrybridge was a minor novelty © Pete Saunders:

We've always had the impression that apparent northern aalge Guillemots are pretty uncommon off the Bill - the mass of wintering birds offshore usually look to comprise almost exclusively paler southern birds - but this 'black as the ace of spades' individual with pretty strong flank streaking stood out like a sore thumb this afternoon and looks to be an individual of distant origin © Martin Cade:

And finally we forgot yesterday to post Joe Stockwell's nice little recording of the dawn soundscape at the Obs when Bramblings were featuring well amongst the other finches: