2nd August

Autumn is creeping upon us slowly with a couple of notable additions to our migrant totals. The first addition of the morning came when a Pied Flycatcher stumbled into the garden nets, much to the delight of the mornings onlookers. A minimum of 4 Sedge Warblers in the crown estate fields were an improvement on recent tallies. The Obs garden has also hosted a small selection of warblers: 5 Willow Warblers, 1 Chiffchaff and 1 Lesser Whitethroat. A flyover Yellow Wagtail and Ringed Plover added a little zest to the mornings proceedings on the land and a skulking Reed Warbler at Culverwell was only the second for the autumn. The increasingly hot afternoon turned up little other than a pair of Willow Warblers at Culverwell, 6 Sand Martins and 38 Swifts. On top of the usual suspects during the morning sea watch (11 Common Scoter, 7 Manx Shearwater, 2 Balearic Shearwater and 11 Yellow-legged Gulls) there was a notable passage of c.250 Mediterranean Gulls, 6 Shelducks and a pale-phase Arctic Skua amongst the regular Gull flock.

A juvenile Merlin at Ferrybridge, a first for the autumn, also produced some excitement, although counts from the rest of the site were low in comparison with recent days: 3 Sanderling, 1 Redshank, 1 Yellow-legged Gull and 2 Little Terns.

Moths were extremely quiet, with a very poor night for migration providing just 6 Silver Y's and 1 Rusty-dot Pearl.

We have been tracking the reports of Pied Flycatchers as they have travelled down through the country across the last couple of weeks, it was a very welcome surprise to see our first today ©Erin Taylor:


This highly unusual Meadow Grasshopper Chorthippus parallelusax is suffering from erythrism, a genetic trait similar to albinism. It is expressing a larger than normal amount of red pigment resulting in a pink grasshopper! The fact it has made it to this stage of life is remarkable given its increased chances of being predated, a wonderful find ©Martin Adlam: