In unexpectedly benign conditions - the gentle north-easterly had lost all its raw edge of recent days - there was enough about to keep interest going all day. With the sky clearing as the morning went on few of the new arrivals dropped in for long but overhead there was quite a trickle of
thrushes and
finches heading through into the breeze; singles of
Blackcap and
Goldcrest were also new at the Obs, with another 2
Blackcaps featuring at Southwell. Further miscellaneous oddities included singles of
Little Egret and
Merlin at the Bill, a
Great Northern Diver settled offshore there, a
Black Redstart at Church Ope and 2
Slavonian Grebes in Portland Harbour.
Last night's immigrant moths: 2 each of
Diamond-back Moth and
Rusty-dot Pearl at the Obs.
Fieldfares are rather notorious for rarely dropping much lower than the tops of the tallest trees at the Obs so this one - seemingly an adult male - was a nice surprise in the mist-nets today © Martin Cade:
Although we've received plenty of notifications of birds we've ringed being discovered elsewhere, this year has been one of the poorest we can remember for 'controls' in our nets so two foreign ringed birds - a Chiffchaff from France and a Blackbird from Holland - in the last few days have been very welcome © Martin Cade:
