The faintest waft of a southeasterly breeze gave hope today even if the initial signs under a heavily overcast sky weren't too encouraging. However, it didn't take long before the season's first Yellow-browed Warbler showed up beside the Obs and later a second individual was unearthed at Wakeham; at the other end of the day, just as dusk fell a Wryneck showed up at Southwell Business Park. These were to prove the highlights although variety amongst the accompanying spread of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs wasn't too bad at the Bill, where there were singles of Merlin, Golden Plover and Snipe, and a Lesser Whitethroat and a Firecrest lingered on; elsewhere, the first 29 Dark-bellied Brent Geese of the season dropped in at Ferrybridge. Late-ish migrants still about around the island included several Sedge Warblers, Whitethroats and Spotted Flycatchers, a Grasshopper Warbler and a Garden Warbler. Two Balearic Shearwaters were easily the pick from some very uneventful seawatching at the Bill.
After a relatively lean year in 2022 it'd be nice if today's Yellow-browed Warblers were the vanguard of a better passage this year © Nick Hopper:
It was a blisteringly good night for migrant moths, with the highlights this Death's-head Hawkmoth from the Grove (photo © Nick Hopper) and a first for the island in the form of an Olive Ermine Zelleria oleastrella from John Lucas' garden at Southwell (...we'd like to post a photograph of the latter but due to our disastrous ineptness it's currently loose in the Obs having escaped while we were trying to obtain that photograph!). The migrant totals from the Obs garden included 131 Rusty-dot Pearl, 16 Vestal, 8 Delicate, 6 Olive-tree Pearl, 2 Old World Webworm, 2 Scarce Bordered Straw and singles of Convolvulus Hawkmoth, Porter's Rustic and Small Mottled Willow; further singles of Old World Webworm were at Southwell and the Grove.
