16th and 17th September

We kept the brisk NW wind on the 16th but it was a much nicer day overall with far fewer showers and plenty of sunshine; the seawatch hide provided the bird of the day with a Balearic Shearwater heading north at 19:10 along with decent totals of 5 Red-throated Divers, 101 Sooty Shearwaters, 6 Manx Shearwaters, 54 Storm Petrels and 2,283 Fulmars including 5 blue phase individuals.

                There was a thin scattering of grounded migrants across the island comprising 2 Barred Warblers (birds caught at the Obs and Holland), 2 Yellow-browed Warblers, a Common Rosefinch, 2 Mealy Redpolls, 8 Rock Pipits, a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Blackcaps, a Chiffchaff, 6 Willow Warblers, a House Martins, 6 Lapland Buntings and a Snow Bunting.   Other little bits included 7 Herons, 2 Kestrels, a Merlin, a Grey Plover, 2 Little Stints at Bewan still and 63 Black-tailed Godwits.

Sanderling,  photo Simon Davies

                A lovely day on the 17th with much lighter northerly winds swinging round to the NE for a spell but despite the promising conditions and a good selection of eastern rares turning up nearby it was a quiet day for new arrivals with a worn adult Marsh Warbler trapped at Holland in the morning the highlight; other landbirds largely consisted of lingering birds with the 2 Barred Warblers still, a Yellow-browed Warbler, a Mealy Redpoll, a Goldcrest, 3 Lesser Whitethroats, a Garden Warbler, 5 Willow Warblers, a Short-eared Owl, 3 Snow Buntings and a Lapland Bunting.

                Remarkably, a second Balearic Shearwater passed the seawatch hide at 08:50 this morning along with 37 Sooty Shearwaters, 7 Manx Shearwaters, 4,117 Fulmars (including 18 blue phase birds), a Great-northern Diver, 3 Red-throated Divers and 11 Common Scoters while 6 Risso’s Dolphins frolicked offshore.   The first Whooper Swan of the autumn arrived on Ancum, with counts of 18 Gadwall, 80 Teal and 17 Shoveler while the 2 Little Stints remained on Bewan, a Grey Plover was on The Links and single Peregrine and Kestrel bombed about.
The Marsh Warbler had a huge fat score of 7 and weighed a monstrous 19.4g - it obviously had been feeding up for a while not too far away

Yellow-browed Warbler,  photos Simon Davies





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