19th July

An unseasonably damp, gusty morning was improved immeasurably by a phone call about a White-rumped Sandpiper at Ferrybridge. With the bird being found at high tide it was often close-by and offered excellent comparison views with the neighboring waders that included up to 122 Dunlin and 27 Sanderlings. This was not the only highlight from Ferrybridge as an adult Roseate Tern also dropped in briefly. Back at the Bill, the initial drizzle downed a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a handful of Willow Warblers and the odd Blackcap but nothing more of note. The sea was exceptionally quiet with just two Balearic Shearwaters, three Manx Shearwaters and an Arctic Skua.

A nice find by Pete and Debby: the fog and drizzle forced down lots of new small waders and they hit the jackpot in amongst them © Debby Saunders (top three), Pete Saunders (flock flight shot), Martin Cade (video) :

Also thanks to Debby for passing on news of this colour-ringed Herring Gull and its rather freaky movements. There's nothing particularly untoward in a movement from Guernsey to Ferrybridge - the bird was first marked as an adult at the former in May 2012 and was at the latter yesterday; however, Paul Veron Guernsey Gulls, who first marked it, reports that the only other sightings of it have been in Norway where it was present on Sandsøya Island - 1500km from Guernsey and on the same latitude as the Faroe Islands - for a week in February 2014. We're struggling to think of any plausible explanation for what's going on there! © Debby Saunders: