Bright and clear conditions early on harboured some good visible passage at the bill but this failed to turn into a mass movement, with just dribs and drabs moving by late morning. Passing birds were dominated by pipits and wagtails with 582
Meadow Pipits, a single
Tree Pipit, 9
alba Wagtails, 1 confirmed
White Wagtail, 13
Grey Wagtails and 16
Yellow Wagtails. Passing hirundines comprised 3
House Martins and 65
Swallows. In keeping with the recent theme a lone
Golden Plover flew through calling in the morning. Birds at sea included 16
Balearic Shearwaters, a
Sandwich Tern, a
Mediterranean Gull, a
Yellow-
legged Gull and 11
Common Scoters. Odd grounded birds included 20
Wheatears dotted about, 4
Whinchats entertaining the strips and top fields as well as singles of
Sedge Warbler and
Redstart.
Despite good visible passage, birds in the nets were few and far between but the highlight was this fine example of Motacilla alba alba (White Wagtail) caught late morning ©Gavin Woodbridge:
Quiet net rounds may not be conducive to increasing our meagre ringing totals but they at least lead to some interesting discoveries and this female Vapourer moth that emerged early in the morning was soon joined by a frisky male ©Erin Taylor
