After belated reports of the
Rosy Starlings feeding voraciously until nearly dusk yesterday it was no great surprise that they couldn't be found today; the
Serin, however, lingered on even if it too gave indications of wanderlust in its quest for a mate - having spent most of the morning at the Obs it moved up to Culverwell before disappearing from there as well. The scorching conditions and brisk northeasterly saw another steady little passage of
Swifts develop at the Bill where the first 30
Swallows and 8
Sand Martins of the autumn also passed through and there was a slightly less expected vismig event in the form of 3
Wood Pigeons arriving in off the sea (...3 more we could well do without bearing in mind the amount of damage being inflicted on our stewardship crops by the rather too prolific local pigeons!). On the ground a
Reed Warbler in song at Avalanche Road and a
Redshank at Ferrybridge was as good as it got. Offshore, a
Yellow-legged Gull joined the gull flock and a handful of
Black-headed and
Mediterranean Gulls passed by.
The last few very warm nights have been great for moth-trapping even if their promise of immigration or dispersal didn't materialise in any big way. That said, last night did come up with some encouraging signs, not the least of which was a remarkable arrival of the pretty little pyralid, Warted Knot-horn Acrobasis repandana: with just seven or so records before this year a pattern of occasional straying from its oak woodland haunts had been established but nothing to hint at last night's 15 trapped at the Obs and 13 scattered between the other garden moth-traps operated around the island; evidently this event was very widespread, with reports of influxes at many coastal sites between Dorset and Suffolk © Martin Cade:
