12th August

The sea continued to receive the lion's share of attention, for the most part only because the unrelenting wind prevented much serious fieldwork on the land. Watches at the Bill during the morning were startlingly unproductive, with little more than 45 Fulmars, 4 Common Scoter, a Manx Shearwater and a Whimbrel through, but movement picked up during the evening when 80 Manx Shearwaters and the autumn's fourth Cory's Shearwater passed by during the last hour of daylight. Ferrybridge came up with all the numbers on the land, including 250 Common Terns, 100 each of Ringed Plover and Dunlin, 12 Oystercatchers, 4 Sanderling, 2 Little Terns and a Redshank; the Bill couldn't muster more than 11 Wheatears, 3 Willow Warblers and singles of Ringed Plover and Turnstone.




Little Terns, Sandwich Terns and Common Tern - Ferrybridge, 12th August 2014 © Pete Saunders (Little Tern) and Debby Saunders (Sandwich Tern and settled terns)