An absolute wash-out of a day ended in quite bizarre circumstances when, just before dusk, a fleeting view of something unfamiliar disappearing into a tree just off the Obs patio materialised on closer inspection into a Hoopoe; it remained in view for a few seconds before flying off - presumably to roost somewhere in the near vicinity. With the conditions precluding any other meaningful fieldwork on the land bar the discovery of the autumn's first 2 Purple Sandpipers settled at the Bill, the day's only other reports were of sporadic seawatching there that had come up with 33 Common Scoter, 8 Balearic Shearwaters, 5 Arctic Skuas, 2 Manx Shearwaters and 2 Great Skuas.
A conspicuously reduced overnight catch in the Obs garden moth-traps did include a small selection of immigrants: 13 Rush Veneer, 2 Delicates and singles of Diamond-back Moth, Pearly Underwing, White-speck, Small Mottled Willow, Scarce Bordered Straw and a Dioryctria sp (possibly not the usual abietella?)
