Unyielding gloom again today and in the increasingly misty conditions the constituents of the day's arrivals changed, with fewer Chiffchaffs and crests but more thrushes and finches. This had been hinted at overnight when the Redwing loggings on the nocmig recorder at the Obs upped to 117 from the low single figure totals that had been the rule during the last week or so. Nine more were logged there through the morning when 23 Chaffinches, 6 Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrushes and a Brambling also passed through. Grounded arrivals were sparse, with barely more than the odd singles of Wheatear, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest at the Bill; a lingering Blackcap occasionally in song was also at the Bill, with 2 more in song at Verne Common where there was also a currently locally very noteworthy total of 7 Greenfinches.
When you see the state of some of the bedraggled small migrants pitching up on the shore at the Bill tip on a damp day like today it does make you wonder how many others got too waterlogged during their Channel crossing and didn't make it - this Chiffchaff was a lucky one © Jodie Henderson:
Today's splashes of colour in the otherwise uniform gloom at the Obs were provided by the year's first Brambling and a handful of Goldcrests © Martin Cade:
