Yellow-browed Warbler at last!

Saturday - Lade - 0700hrs  - mild, cloudy, n2 - With the east wind finally relenting it allowed a number of grounded migrants to show themselves comprising 50 each of Mipits, Linnets and Reed Buntings, 10 Wheatears, 10 Song Thrushes, six Stonechats and two Ring Ouzels. Overhead a trickle of Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Skylarks and two Redpolls, plus a steady flow of hirundines with c500 each of House Martins and Swallows on the power lines.

                                Large Wainscot and Wheatear

  The garden moth trap was quiet again although it did attract a Large Wainscot. This afternoon the family helped me harvest pumpkins and squashes and tidy up the allotment for the winter; it`s amazing what you can get done with five pairs of hands!

                              

Sunday - 0700hrs  - cool, cloudy, n2  - A wander around the point delivered a decent range of common migrants where grounded birds included plenty of Linnets, Starlings, Robins and Dunnocks, along with smaller numbers of Mipits, Pied Wagtails, Goldfinches, Stonechats, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Redwings, two Ring Ouzels, two Black Redstart, Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests, Great Tits and Reed Buntings. Overhead a steady trickle of hirundines was noted, plus 10 Tree Sparrows, several Skylarks, Siskins and Redpolls, my first two Fieldfares of the season, a Grey Plover and a late Yellow Wagtail. The passerines had to be alert though as five Kestrels and two Sparrowhawks were on the hunt.
  However, the icing on the cake this morning, thanks to a call from DW, was a stunning stripy sprite in the hand at the Obs; it was my first Yellow-browed Warbler of an autumn that has seen good numbers around the coastline and several hereabouts that have been difficult to connect with.

                               Yellow-browed Warbler, DBO

Walland Marsh - After dropping our Kate at Appledore station I crossed the farmland wastes where there was little on offer apart from a couple of Goldfinch/Linnet flocks, the Midley sparrows and finches and a couple of Buzzards. A quick call in at Hanson hide yielded the usual plovers, wildfowl and egrets on the islands.