19th August

The day's highlight came late in the afternoon when a cracking juvenile Two-barred Crossbill was trapped in one of the Heligoland traps at the Observatory - it was quite a relief to finally get one of these lovely finches with birds both to the north and the south of us for weeks now!   The sea also got a lot of attention today with the wind gradually dropping after yesterday's big blow with a few hours producing totals of 15 Sooty Shearwaters and 17 Manx Shearwaters along with a 1st summer Little Gull and a group of 5 Pintail in amongst the 1,100 Fulmars and 200 Gannets.
   Passerines have been slow to get going so far this autumn so hopefully the Black Redstart at Senness and Whitethroat at Rue are the start of things with the winds changing later this week.   There was also another arrival of waders today with 253 Dunlin and 28 Black-tailed Godwit the most noteworthy while the Pectoral Sandpiper remains on Ancum Loch.

Two-barred Crossbill

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