One of the most exciting days of autumn - as much for the potential offered by the arrival of so many routine migrants and thoughts of what they might have been carrying with them. New Yellow-browed Warblers showed up at the Bill, Wakeham and Easton but it was the ongoing - literally throughout the day - arrival of the likes of Robins, crests, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps that kept the few field sloggers going right until last light. There was plenty of other migration action unfolding, particularly overhead where pigeons, Jackdaws and finches streamed through in quantity; the lingering Pallas's Warbler at the Obs was a crowd-puller if hardly a crowd-pleaser and a Serin teased with a few fly-rounds at the Bill. Robins staged the most conspicuous arrival on the ground, with 100 a minimum guesstimate from the Bill where they seemed to be everywhere; Goldcrests, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were in good quantity everywhere and other newcomers at the Bill included 16 Redwings, 7 Black Redstarts, 2 Firecrests and a Fieldfare. Overhead passage was again dominated by Wood Pigeons, with 43000 over the Bill and a possibly even larger single flock over Ferrybridge that either dissipated or headed away before it could be properly enumerated; 2180 Jackdaws, 650 Goldfinches, 480 Linnets, and 330 Starlings provided further high totals at the Bill, where 35 Siskins, 6 Bramblings, 4 Redpolls and a Lapwing were of note amongst the lower totals. A party of 13 Little Egrets through off the Bill were an oddity but a single Balearic Shearwater was the only proper seabird of interest there.
A dawn like this was always going to offer plenty of vis mig potential...
...pigeons soon filled the sky but today it was swirling flocks of Jackdaws that were as much a spectacle...
