3rd August

While a day of fog played havoc with the island's air travel timetable, it did at least bring a couple of new birds, even if it was at times difficult to see them through the cloud. Most notable was a Brambling near Kirbest - certainly not an expected species at this time of year: a quick scan through the observatory's log files shows that this is actually the first August sighting on record! A Greenshank was the other new arrival, helpfully revealing itself through the mist by its call several times during the day. The Green Sandpiper was still touring its favourite patches of mud in census area B, and the Swift was still near the observatory. Wader counts included 605 Golden Plovers, 492 Sanderlings and 119 Dunlins.

Several pairs of Sedge Warblers nested on the island this year. Although returning migrants should be starting to appear around this time, the dispersal of the locally fledged juveniles makes them harder to detect. This young bird, easily identified as such by the clean, contrasting markings, pale creamy ground colour and 'necklace' of speckles across the upper breast, was trapped at the observatory, well away from the breeding sites.