15th January

A largely uneventful day with a Lapwing at the Bill the only new arrival of interest. Nine Red-throated Divers passed by off the Bill, 10 Common Scoter were still settled offshore and 3 Redpolls, a Black Redstart and a Chiffchaff were still about on the land. Elsewhere, 3 Blackcaps were still at Southwell, a Black Redstart was at Barleycrates Lane, the Rosy Starling was again at Easton and 340 Mediterranean Gulls were at Ferrybridge.

A lone Bottle-nosed Dolphin was off the Bill during the morning.

Stonechat at the Bill this morning © Pete Saunders:


We're guessing that a vagrant Cape Gannet would probably be most likely to occur in this part of the world during our summer which would be their non-breeding season (at least that applies to an adult since, realistically, it would have to be an adult to be able to identify it). Regardless of that, we've always vaguely kept an eye out for one and yesterday saw what was perhaps the most look-alike individual we've ever noticed: sadly, it was passing by further out than the tide race off the Bill so was a good two miles distant and therefore too far away to allow for really critical examination; however, it did look to be a really crispy-marked bird with neat black secondaries and a black tail - we couldn't discern any signs of  immature feathers on either the upper or under-wing coverts that both looked to be pristinely white. Since we didn't get any feel whatever for it looking a tad smaller or maybe flying a bit differently we'd guess it was just a look-alike sub-adult Northern Gannet with fewer than usual retained immature feathers in the coverts but it would have been nice if it had been just that bit closer © Martin Cade: