A much lower-key day than had been hoped after migration looked have been picking up. Grounded arrivals at the Bill consisted of 20ish spreads of both
Wheatear and
Willow Warbler, with a similar total of
Tree Pipits overhead, but variety was limited with singles of
Marsh Harrier there and over Weston easily the best of a bad job. Waders were more numerous but 3
Sanderlings and a
Knot at Ferrybridge and 2
Redshanks, a
Whimbrel and a
Snipe at the Bill provided the only worthwhile variety.
Balearic Shearwaters just made a three-figure total off the Bill, where 200
Mediterranean Gulls, 80
Manx Shearwaters, 2
Arctic Skuas and singles of
Cory's Shearwater,
Sooty Shearwater and
Great Skua were also logged.
The nice little run of Marsh Harriers in recent days included this one today over Weston © Duncan Walbridge:
For the simple reason that we didn't see any at the Bill, we forgot to mention yesterday the onset of Blackcap autumn passage with eight in the Coombefield area; it's a peculiar feature of their autumn passage that the centre and north of the island is enormously more favoured over the Bill area - it's not at all unusual on a day of autumn fieldwork to encounter no more than ones and twos at the Bill before later finding many dozens during a visit to any of the areas of suitable thick cover north of Southwell © Duncan Walbridge:
