21st April

The magical northeasterlies persisted and whilst they didn't precipitate anything approaching a huge fall there was plenty to see throughout the island, with easily the best variety on offer so far this spring. Willow Warblers were hugely dominant, with 300 at the Bill alone, but Wheatears also put in a respectable showing with 100 at the Bill and seemingly a higher total than that from points northward. Erratic coverage and possible duplication aside, scarcer migrants around and about included 15 Redstarts, 15 Whinchats, 6 Ring Ouzels, 4 Grasshopper Warblers, 4 Pied Flycatchers and 3 Cuckoos. Although the ground got most of the day's attention there was plenty of action overhead, with several Swifts and a Hobby amongst the steady passage of hirundines on the move under a cloudless sky. For a while after dawn it looked like Barwit day was on the cards, with 160 Bar-tailed Godwits through off the Bill along with 7 Red-throated Divers, 3 Arctic Skuas and singles of Black-throated and Great Northern Divers but the passage faded as quickly as it had begun (...or perhaps just moved further out beyond our vision?). Ferrybridge bumped up the day's variety with, amongst others, 18 Whimbrel, 7 Canada Geese, 3 Shelducks and 2 Mute Swans. 

A few odds and ends from around the island: Ring Ouzel © Duncan Walbridge...


...Whinchat © Martin Cade


...Sedge Warbler and Little Terns © Debby Saunders...



...and something we overlooked yesterday - in fact in a local context quite a gripping photo! - the five Gadwall at Ferrybridge © Pete Saunders:


In between wading through a mini avalanche of Willow Warblers our interest from the Obs mist-nets today concerned female Redstarts. Every once in a while we catch really bright birds like this one that have a ghosting of a black throat - if you part the throat feathers there really is a lot of black underlying the paler tips...



...contrast that individual with the 'normal' female below. We've always struggled to convince ourselves that birds like this are unequivocally females and not exceedingly poorly marked young males (in fact we usually record them in the ringing log as unsexed) but they do conform to, for example, Svensson's statement that, "Very exceptionally females looking like males occur. These have breast rather rich orange-buff, and forehead with a little white concealed, but it is extremely rare that they have all chin- and throat-feathers based blackish (Usually only a part of throat has dark grey bases to feathers.)" © Martin Cade:



And finally something that took our fancy from last night's Obs nocmig recording: a flock of Whimbrel very close overhead an hour or so before dawn - we record plenty of nocturnal Whimbrel at this time of year but the majority sound like they're passing along East Cliffs or out over the sea and they're rarely as close as this flock obviously were: