The northeasterly airflow's showing no sign of abating, but today's increasingly overcast conditions - that heralded the novelty for recent weeks of a spell of late afternoon rain - brought some much needed change to proceedings and dropped more than a sprinkle of new arrivals on the land. A total of 75 Chiffchaffs made up the bulk of the grounded migrants at the Bill, where Wheatears, Blackcaps and Willow Warblers were all represented in far lower numbers and 5 Fieldfare, 3 Redwings and a Redstart provided some variety. It was far busier overhead, although action there was on such a broad front that it was tricky to fully tap into what with there being next to no visiting birders about to lend a hand in that department; a two hour stint at Wallsend that came up with 513 Meadow Pipits, 240 Linnets, 63 Goldfinches, 57 Swallows, 57 Sand Martins and 22 House Martins patently only scratched the surface and the day's true diurnal totals would have been considerably higher. In contrast, the day's sea passage was a little more subdued than of late, with 137 Common Scoter, 80 Sandwich Terns, 5 commic terns, 4 Red-throated Divers, a Great Northern Diver and a Teal through off the Bill.
