13th September

With the wind going slack over night and forecast to swing towards the south-east, an ounce of renewed hope was once again quashed by the limited appearance of grounded migrants. Overhead passage continued in some force with Meadow Pipits clocking over 300, Swallows well in excess of 150 and Siskins at 68 (although the true count was most likely much higher with many flocks audible but not visible). Heading down the scale, Grey Wagtails were once again present in good numbers with 20 individuals over the Obs, accompanied by a small passage of Chaffinches and Blackcaps (both counts reaching 10). Amongst the swirling hirundines, a tardy Swift provided some acrobatic entertainment and the first two Purple Sandpipers of the autumn were at the Bill. Away from the Obs, the Ferrybridge highlight continued to be the loitering Little Stint, joined by a lone Bar-tailed Godwit and several of the other usual suspects.

Bluefin Tuna were again seen several times off the Bill during the morning.

Hot on the heels of the colour-ringed Dunlin we mentioned a few days, today there was another colour-ringed wader at Ferrybridge - this time a Ringed Plover. Debby Saunders tracked down the ringing details very quickly and it turns out this bird was marked on 20th August at Makkevika, Giske, More & Romsdal, Norway (the location is about a quarter of the way up the western coast of Norway, just a little way north of the latitude of the Faroe Islands). These colour-ring sightings are great and really bring home to you what an amazing crossroads even a tiny little patch of sandflats like Ferrybridge is: just off the top of our head we can remember colour-ringed Ringed Plovers there in recent autumns that were marked at breeding sites in Arctic Canada (two individuals), the Baltic coast of Sweden and now the Atlantic coast of Norway © Debby Saunders: