A Red-breasted Goose heading south with a couple of Brents was noted not long after this at Frinton-on-sea, Essex - the only question now is is this one of the regular returning wintering birds that frequents these shores in the winter month or is it an escaped cage bird ? Three Spoonbill heading north continues the fine run of records of this species lately. Three Yellow-browed Warblers here today make us believe we have had 9 different individuals over the last 4 days. The one above illustrates the narrow crown stripe that can be difficult to see in the field. A Coal Tit trapped was a British race bird. A run of Coal Tits recently all seem to be "British" whereas at this time of the year "Continental" race birds are normally the race we get - the last time any numbers of "British" race birds were noted at this time of the year was over 30 years ago. With clear sunny conditions not a huge amount of common migrants around the site but they included 10 Robin, 8 Blackcap, 7 Grey Wags, 6 Goldcrest, 6 Swallow, 6 Mipit, 3 Siskin, 2 Chiffchaff, Redstart, Ring Ouzel, Redwing, Firecrest, Rock Pipit, Stonechat plus a couple of Blackbirds that literally fell out of the sky late morning indicating the start of autumn passage for this species.Offshore southbound 337 Brents, 196 Wigeon, 47 Pintail & 14 Teal. Out of the wind still plenty of butterflies, Southern Hawker, Migrant Hawker plus Common Darter.
22 birds ringed: 5 goldcrest, 5 grey wagtail, 3 blackcap, 3 blue tit, 2 robin, 1 song thrush, 1 coal tit, 1 yellow-browed warbler, 1 firecrest.