The clear night sky did us no favours when it came to dropping nocturnal migrants but the diurnal movers were loving the sunshine, with Sand Martins in particular putting on a great show and wader variety noticeably picking up.
Sand Martins were both moving and lingering, with c200 leaving out to sea from the Bill where upwards of 500 were in a swirling mass over the fields at times; 100
Swallows and 50
Swifts also passed through overhead. It was considerably quieter on the ground, with 3
Yellow Wagtails, 2
Sedge Warblers and singles of
Little Egret and
Wheatear the best on offer at the Bill, where the sea was also relatively slow: at least 8
Yellow-legged Gulls were still offshore but a single
Great Crested Grebe was the pick of miscellany passing by. Waders were well represented, with 14
Sanderling, 3
Little Ringed Plovers and 2
Black-tailed Godwits amongst the selection at Ferrybridge; a
Green Sandpiper passed over at Sweethill and 7
Dunlin, 2
Sanderlings and singles of
Ringed Plover and
Redshank passed over at the Bill.
With the Sand Martins behaving like this it was no surprise that a ringing record was broken at the Bill: the previous highest year total of Sand Martins ringed at the Bill was 83, but this afternoon we ringed 107 and controlled another already-ringed bird (...details on that when we receive them) © Martin Cade:
These two Black-tailed Godwits were the pick of the morning waders at Ferrybridge © Pete Saunders...
...while these three Little Ringed Plovers had dropped in by the evening.
We always enjoy being at Ferrybridge when the incoming tide coincides with the end of the day as there's often an exodus of waders that have fed up well during the daylight hours; as the last of the mud gets covered small groups of birds often tower up - usually calling constantly - and head away to the south to begin the next overnight leg of their south-bound migration...
...this evening a few little groups of Dunlin trickled away...
...and eventually the Little Ringed Plovers lost the last of the mud and followed suit © Martin Cade:
