6th October

There were high hopes for today and although the wind took longer to abate than was hoped there was still plenty of passage to get amongst. With the huge Harvest Moon evident throughout the hours of darkness it was unlikely that numbers would feature on the ground but there was plenty enough going on overhead, with 250 alba wagtails, 50 Chaffinches, 45 Siskins, 25 Reed Buntings, 17 Golden Plovers, 7 Yellow Wagtails, 6 Redpolls, 4 Tree Pipits, 4 Tree Sparrows, 2 Merlins and singles of Redwing and Lapland Bunting amongst the higher numbers of Swallows, Meadow Pipits, Goldfinches and Linnets through over the Bill. Quality on the ground was limited to singles of Great Spotted Woodpecker and Yellow-browed Warbler at the Obs and a Wryneck at Southwell Business Park, with 60 Chiffchaffs and 40 Wheatears making up the bulk of the commoner migrants at the Bill.

The third Radford's Flame Shoulder of the autumn was the pick of the overnight immigrant moth catch at the Obs.

As a change from photos we've got a few sound recordings from the morning at the Obs courtesy of Joe Stockwell:







And finally, many thanks to Steve Gantlett cleybirds for his studious detective work in establishing the definitive details of the origins - together with a timeline of its movements - of the White Stork that visited the island during the August bank holiday weekend: 

25th June 2016                      female ringed in the nest as a chick at Opacz, in the Vistula valley just south of Warsaw, Poland

??????                                    found very weak and under-weight near Opacz, taken into care and transferred to Warsaw Zoo

December 2016                    transferred to Knepp Castle Rewilding Project, West Sussex

22nd July 2017                       Cley Marshes, Norfolk (Confirmed Z9404)

23rd July 2017                       Kelling Quag, Norfolk (9.25am) (Confirmed Z9404)

23rd July 2017                       Norwich, Norfolk (1.45pm) (Presumed Z9404)

10th-11th August 2017          Langton Herring area, the Fleet, Dorset (Presumed Z9404)

12th August 2017                 Charmouth, Dorset (Presumed Z9404)

25th-27th August 2017          Isle of Portland, Dorset (to 9.40am on 27th) (Confirmed Z9404)

27th August 2017                   Pembury, Kent (TWO 4.35pm) (Presumed Z9404 now found a friend)

29th-31st August 2017            Romney Marsh (TWO) (Confirmed Z9404 plus the other bird also-green-ringed, so presumed another reintroduced bird)

1st September 2017               Dungeness, Kent (TWO) (Presumed Z9404 & also-green-ringed friend)

3rd-5th September 2017          Rustington, West Sussex (TWO) (Presumed Z9404 & also green-ringed friend)

9th-15th September 2017        Pagham Harbour, West Sussex (TWO) (Confirmed both green-ringed so Presumed Z9404 & also-green-ringed friend)            

18th September 2017              Isle of Wight (Confirmed Z9404) (but not known if it is still accompanying the other bird or not)

20th September 2017                  Iffendic, Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, France (Confirmed Z9404) (but not known if it is still accompanying the other bird or not)

...and a little bit of video of it when it was over the Bill on 25th August © Martin Cade: