24th August

It's hard to believe that two days ago we were hailing the start of a glorious autumn, although the weather was more fitting for this time of year the birding certainly wasn't. Passage at sea provided a pleasant surprise with a good movement of 45 Balearic Shearwaters, 16 Manx Shearwaters, 3 Common Scoters, 2 Yellow-legged Gulls, 2 Mediterranean Gulls, and a Commic Tern. A grand total of zero birds were trapped in the garden throughout the morning, however the species list was not as miserable as yesterday. An autumnal high of 59 Yellow Wagtails was perhaps the highlight migrant wise along with a single Swift, 7 Tree Pipits, 8 Sand Martins, 23 Wheatears, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 Willow Warblers (the lowest total for quite some time), 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Whinchat and (although not technically a migrant) a single Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Elsewhere on the island, an excursion to Suckthumb quarry produced 1 Blackcap, 2 Spotted Flycatchers, 1 Willow Warbler and 1 House Martin whilst Reap Lane produced 10 Yellow Wagtails and 3 Wheatears.

Once again we have Nick Hopper to thank for another session of nocturnal migration recording, the night of the 21st/22nd August produced a bumper 1,142 Tree Pipit calls - of these, there were just 31 before 2am but then the floodgates opened once thick cloud rolled in. This pattern was true for almost all the species recorded that night which included: 7 Pied Flycatchers, 3 Spotted Flycatchers, 14 Robins, 5 Yellow Wagtails (and 4 small flocks), 3 Alba Wagtails (an unusual night caller), 1 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpipers (and a small flock with singing birds), 2 Redshank, 1 Whimbrel, 2 Turnstone, a flock of Bar-tailed Godwits and reasonable numbers of Ringed Plover and Dunlin flocks. 

The nocturnal calls of the two common flycatchers and Robin can be tricky to separate and there were some nice comparisons to be had during the course of the night © Nick Hopper: