20th March

Better variety today even if numbers - at least, Meadow Pipits aside - were nothing to shout about. The cloud cover that had rolled in by dawn maybe came a little too late to drop migrants in quantity, with 30 Chiffchaffs at the Bill and double figure totals at several other sites making up the bulk of what was grounded; Wheatear was the again the poor relation, with no more than 10 in total from the whole island, whilst ones and twos of other grounded arrival included a couple of Fieldfares. With clear skies on the other side of the Channel Meadow Pipits arrived strongly as the morning wore on, with some hundreds through over the Bill; a Short-eared Owl also arrived over the Bill, with a Bullfinch over Ferrybridge another decent vismig sighting. Sea passage was varied rather than heavy, with 7 Red-throated Divers, 2 Gadwall and singles of Black-throated and Great Northern Diver, Red-breasted Merganser and Great Skua through off the Bill. Other odds and ends of note included the Merlin still at the Bill and a Great Spotted Woodpecker there that turned out once it was mist-netted to be a youngster originally ringed there last autumn.