A considerable - and very welcome - amelioration in the weather saw the wind gradually ease down and the sky clear that in turn saw visible passage resume, with 3370 Wood Pigeons, 575 Goldfinches, 150 Linnets and 130 Starlings making up the bulk of a steady little movement over the Bill; also overhead there, a Sand Martin lingered amongst a few tardy Swallows, a Merlin was about and at dusk 3 Short-eared Owls appeared. Grounded arrivals weren't plentiful but included a handful of Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests at the Bill and 3 Wheatears and a Whinchat at Hamm Beach/Ferrybridge; the long-staying Ring Ouzel was also still in residence at the Bill. The trickle through on the sea at the Bill included 3 Balearic Shearwaters, 2 Great Northern Divers and singles of Red-throated Diver, Sooty Shearwater and Pomarine Skua; 200 Gannets were also feeding offshore there, whilst elsewhere a settled Great Northern Diver was at Ferrybridge.
We were hoping that today's late aerial hawker would have been some sort of swift but a Sand Martin had to suffice, not that that's a bad record in itself - the island's only later occurrence is of one on 10th November 1998 © Martin Cade:
The morning's very high tide saw a good-sized aggregation of up to 50 Turnstones gather on Hamm Beach © Pete Saunders:
