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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