Saturday 12th September 2015

An Icterine Warbler that put in an appearance in the Holm Oaks added a bit of quality - but only for 5 minutes as it disappeared from view with a dose of heavier rain. Other migrants today included 6 Redstart, 6 Wheatear, 3 Pied Fly, 3 Yellow Wags, 2 Firecrest, 2 Lesser 'throat, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Great-spotted Woodpecker & a Purple Sandpiper on the point. Vis mig consisted of 237 Swallow, 6 House Martin & a Sand Martin heading south with limited viewing offshore producing 6 Brent north & 8 south plus 19 Teal & 2 Arctic Tern southbound.

6 birds ringed: 2 firecrest, 1 redstart, 1 blackcap, 1 garden warbler, 1 great-spotted woodpecker.

Friday 11th September 2015

The continuing easterly wind turned to a south-easterly direction just after lunchtime today, but we have been grateful for the array of birds on offer over the last few days, including today. A few new migrants in today.

Migrants today came in as 3 Willow Warbler, 3 Common Whitethroat, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Firecrest, 6 Common Redstart, 6 Wheatear, 1 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Whinchat, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 4 Goldfinch, 1 Siskin, 42 Swallow, 17 Brent Geese, 1 Pink-footed Goose, 2 Lapwing amd 3 Cormorant,

A late worn Meadow Brown was seen out on the nature reserve this morning.

As part of  ''MothNight 2015'' we are, along with a number of other designated locations, marking migrants moths with coloured paint. Hopefully this Scarce Bordered Straw might be seen again at another site. If you see any moths over the next few days that have paint marks on them please try and photograph it and contact the organisers at www.mothnight.info.

Ringing: 4 birds ringed during the course of the morning including 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Common Whitethroat, 1 Robin and 1 Common Redstart.

Thursday 10th September 2015

The continued easterly winds produced just a few new migrants but nothing out of the ordinary, yet..

Migrants today came in the form of 3 Pied Flycatcher, 5 Common Redstart, 2 Wheatear, 2 Whinchat, 3 Willow Warbler, 3 Common Whitethroat, 5 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Meadow Pipit, 8 Chaffinch, 4 Goldfinch, 2 Siskin, 1 Goldcrest, 56 Swallow and 2 Sand Martin.

Sea watching produced 109 Teal, 43 Wigeon, 36 Brent Geese, 7 Common Scoter, 1 Gadwall, 1 Eider, 4 Whimbrel, 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Curlew, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Redshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 19 Common Tern, 16 Sandwich Tern, 3 Arctic Tern and 3 Mediterranean Gull.

Ringing: 4 birds ringed during the morning including 2 Common Redstart, 1 Pied Flycatcher and 1 Willow Warbler.

Wednesday 9th September 2015

A really nice start to the 2nd week of September today, being Autumn and the excitement of anything from the East at this time of year on the cards - today, things started to happen with quite a few nice migrants appearing throughout the day.

Migrants today on land included 5 Goldcrest, 12 Robin, 17 Pied Wagtail, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 5 Whinchat, 4 Pied Flycatcher, 2 Common Redstart, 2 Wheatear, 8 Willow Warbler, 5 Common Whitethroat, 4 Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Garden Warbler, 9 Goldfinch, 20 Swallow and a lovely male Snow Bunting which is our earliest ever Autumn record for the Observatory.

Sea watching produced a total of 339 Teal that headed South and 10 North which gave quite an autumnal feel to the place. Also 25 Common Tern, 11 Sandwich Tern, 8 Common Tern, 8 Gannet, 2 Common Gull, 64 Common Scoter, 56 Wigeon, 1 Pochard, 31 Cormorant, 25 Brent Geese, 3 Oystercatcher, 1 Curlew and 3 Spoonbill that headed out of the river and out to sea, presumably North.

Ringing: 6 birds ringed during the day which included 1 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Blackcap, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Robin and 1 Blue Tit.

Tuesday 8th September 2015

A change in the wind today, swinging around to the north-west and soon to be north easterly brought a very small number of new migrants to the observatory.

New migrants today included 4 Common Whitethroat, 4 Blackcap, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Pied Flycatcher, 3 Goldcrest, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Wheatear (above), 1 Whinchat, 1 Swallow, 21 Goldfinch, 5 Siskin, 32 Teal, 14 Wigeon, 1 Pintail, 5 Oystercatcher, 2 Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin, 1 Golden Plover, 1 Redshank, 1 Curlew, 1 Whimbrel, 9 Common Scoter, 14 Common Tern, 7 Sandwich Tern, 2 Brent Geese, 2 Common Gull, 1 Jackdaw and 1 Marsh Harrier.

This tatty young Jackdaw has been on-site for the past couple of days. Blind in one eye it may have been driven out by its fellow species to fend on its own.

In the moth traps Scarce Bordered Straw is the first of the autumn of this migrant species.

Ringing: 5 birds ringed during the morning including 1 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Blackcap and 1 Willow Warbler.

Monday 7th September 2015

This Burnished Brass moth is aptly named, especially when viewed at night by torchlight. It was the best moth of an otherwise standard nights moth-trapping.

The weather is beginning to look favourable over the next few days, so we are hoping for some good migrants.Migrants have already started to appear in better numbers with todays collection of birds including Hobby, 2 Pied Flycatchers, 1 Redstart, both Grey and Yellow Wagtails, 10 + Willow Warblers, 6 Chiffchaff and 2 Goldcrest. Offshore both Sandwich and Common Terns are offshore in small numbers, along with Gannet and one or two commoner wader species.

13 birds were ringed, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Robin and 1 each of Starling, Blue Tit, Blackcap, Pied Flycatcher, Grey Wagtail and Goldcrest.

Sunday 6th September 2015

Cold start with the site holding a selection of common migrants in very small numbers including 4 Blackcap, 4 Willow Warbler, 3 Yellow Wags, 3 Lesser 'throat, 2 Wheatear, 2 Chiffchaff & single Redstart, Pied Fly & Great-spotted Woodpecker. 9 Siskins flew north plus 5 south & offshore southbound 28 Teal, 17 Redshank, 15 Wigeon & 3 Golden Plover.

10 birds ringed: 4 blue tit, 1 starling, 1 willow warbler, 1 chiffchaff, 1 linnet, 1 chaffinch, 1 greenfinch.