30th August

The wind slowly increased through the day becoming pretty foul by the evening but before things became too bad there were some new birds of note including a Barred Warbler near Ancum (very nearly a blank August for this species!), a Black Redstart and an out-of-the-blue flock of 14 Crossbills which were caught together in one of the Heligoland traps late afternoon - our first since a lone juvenile on 5th August.   A good selection of lingering birds also kept things interesting with the juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper still on Gretchen, the Velvet Scoter still in Nouster Bay and the Common Rosefinch still in Kirbest crop along with small numbers of common migrants including Garden Warbler, Whitethroat and Whinchat.

One of the Crossbill flock from this evening