Still no more than ticking over at the lowest of levels on all fronts today, with mist and/or low cloud adding to the air of melancholy. There was a scatter of common migrants about including 30
Blackcaps, 20 each of
Wheatear and
Chiffchaff, and 10
Willow Warblers at the Bill but nothing unexpected turned up in their midst and it was left to a brief
Caspian Gull to provide any real interest on the ground there. Overhead passage and movement on the sea was almost non-existent.
It seemed unlikely that the Large Cone-head found in a moth-trap back in August would prove to be a one-off and sure enough this evening at least two stridulating specimens were discovered in the Crown Estate Field, with one being fairly easily seen by torch light. The number of orthopteran colonists of the island in recent years really has been quite astounding! © Martin Cade:
