A trickle-down of rarities from points eastwards has been increasingly anticipated and duly came to pass today with the discoveries of a Tawny Pipit and a Barred Warbler at the Bill, although sadly, since the former was not really a performer and the latter was only seen in flight by one fortunate observer, the excitement passed most observers by; a Nightingale was also a worthy addition to the tally at the Bill even if as seems likely it was a reappearing lingerer rather than a new arrival. Unfortunately the back-up cast to the oddities was lacking - at least on the ground - both numbers and variety: 3 Little Stints and a Yellow-legged Gull at Ferrybridge and singles of Short-eared Owl, Grasshopper Warbler and Pied Flycatcher at the Bill were all of interest, but few if any common migrants were represented in anything other than the thinnest of spreads. Overhead it was a different story, with the heaviest hirundine passage of the autumn to date a feature everywhere; sample counts of the mixed passage of all three common species were getting up to around 5000/hour at times, whilst the presence in the mix of plenty of Meadow Pipits and at least 2 Hobbys added still further to the spectacle.
Yesterday's immigrant moth interest wasn't sustained, with the strength of the wind leading to very reduced overnight catches in all the traps.
Tawny Pipit - Portland Bill, 17th September 2014 © Joe Stockwell
...although captioned here as Tawny Pipit, some aspects of the bird's apparent appearance in these snatched record-shots has led the observer to express his doubts as to the firmness of the ID; since the bird wasn't seen on the ground, the only additional details that can be added are that the few calls heard sounded compatible with those of Tawny Pipit.
