Bar a short, sharp spell of very heavy rain during the morning, today's mix of a stiff southerly and patchy sunshine was enough to provide interest on land and sea. On a day when other grounded arrivals looked to be few and far between there was a surprise in the form of the autumn's first Pallas's Warbler that showed up at Avalanche Road; the odd Firecrest here and there, a Purple Sandpiper at the Bill and a Black Redstart at Reap Lane were the only other discoveries amongst the lightest of scatters of Redwings, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests and the like. The sea got lots of attention and for periods was hard work what with there being such a huge feeding aggregation of Kittiwakes and auks offshore that had at least 3 Arctic Skuas and singles of Manx Shearwater and Great Skua lingering in their midst.
Two nice photographs of the Pallas's Warbler that rather misrepresent how it was showing - on our visit during the afternoon we saw it for a couple of seconds immediately we walked into the Hump and then spent a further three hours searching for it without getting as much as another glimpse! © Thomas Miller:
There was such a big feeding flock off the Bill today that the various Arctic Skuas attracted were having an absolute field day © Pete Saunders:
Also at the Bill tip, it was nice to see an obliging Purple Sandpiper back in residence © Pete Saunders:
Today we were extremely pleased to finally receive from the printers a large consignment of our long, long overdue 'annual' report - so long overdue in fact that it covers the last four years! We'll soon be mailing copies out to all who were Obs members during this four year period - if you're one of these folk and you happen to call at the Obs in the next few days do please pick up your copy as anything that saves us from even a little bit of the monumental amount of packing, franking and mailing we'll be doing will be very welcome!
