Saturday 10th October 2015

A cool easterly breeze greeted us this morning and continues throughout the day and into the week ahead, so hopefully it's going to bring us some eastern promise or just a good scattering of winter thrushes as we don't seem to have had any movements as of yet. Quite a few new-in migrants scattered about the site today.

New arrivals include 20+ Goldcrest, 4 Song Thrush, 48 Linnet, 14 Goldfinch, 13 Chaffinch, 4 Greenfinch, 3 Redpoll, 12 Meadow Pipit, 4 Rock Pipit, 5 Pied Wagtail, 2 Grey Wagtail, 10 Swallow, 2 Skylark, 4 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, 84 Brent Geese, 25 Wigeon, 12 Teal, 1 Common Scoter, 11 Black-headed Gull, 4 Common Gull, 3 Oystercatcher, 8 Cormorant, 1 Great Northern Diver, 1 Red-throated Diver, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Woodcock (in-off the sea).

Still a few Meadow Pipit at the observatory and the nature reserve with several stopping off to feed up like this individual.

Ringing: 31 birds ringed during the day including 20 Goldcrest, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Wren, 2 Robin, 1 Great Tit and 1 Blackbird.

Friday 9th October 2015

A slightly quieter day today with fewer birds on the move. The clear skies and sunny day provided a lovely autumnal days birding.

New migrants came in the form of 70 Meadow Pipit, 11 Rock Pipit, 13 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Common Redstart, 25 Skylark, 28 Swallow, 9 Reed Bunting, 12 Robin, 15 Blackbird, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Redwing, 70 Goldfinch, 35 Greenfinch, 26 Siskin, 13 Chaffinch, 11 Redpoll, 2 Coal Tit, 4 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 6 Goldcrest, 5 Common Gull, 1 Mediterranean Gull and 2 Jackdaw.

Early afternoon a Serin was found, but only stayed briefly before flying off South to warmer climes.

Common Redstart is still here feeding up before she heads further South as are several butterflies still hanging on like this Small Copper.

Ringing: 20 birds ringed during the day which included 4 Wren, 3 Chiffchaff, 3 Goldcrest, 2 Great Tit, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Blue Tit and 1 Woodpigeon.

Thursday 8th October 2015

A cool west north westerly wind this morning produced sufficient numbers of migrants to the observatory with visual migration being quite good and the order of the day.

Visual migration today was rather entertaining with 618 Goldfinch, 132 Linnet, 122 Chaffinch, 79 Greenfinch, 45 Lesser Redpoll inc 1 Mealy Redpoll, 26 Siskin, 6 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 1 Garden Warbler, 19 Pied Wagtail, 4 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Grey Wagtail, 112 Meadow Pipit, 2 Rock Pipit, 10 Blackbird, 10 Robin, 4 Song Thrush, 8 Goldcrest, 10 Reed Bunting, 63 Swallow, 5 House Martin, 40 Skylark, 3 Wheatear, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 126 Black-headed Gull, 1 Common Gull, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 6 Cormorant, 5 Brent Geese and 1 Pintail.

This Mealy Redpoll was a lovely surprise in one of our mist nets this morning.

Ringing: 17 birds ringed during the day which included 4 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 3 Chaffinch, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Wren, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Woodpigeon, 1 Garden Warbler and 1 Mealy Redpoll.

Wednesday 7th October 2015

This Large Wainscot is a lover of Reedbeds

, so is not a moth we see regularly on site.

A change in the weather with fresher, damper conditions, will hopefully bring more birds down rather than over. Visible migration was the order of the day, with lots of birds going over as well as several grounded individuals not willing to cross the harbour mouth in the murky conditions. Small birds were mostly involved, with 139 Goldfinch, 31 Siskin, 15 Redpoll,12 Skylark, 15 Chaffinch, 76 Meadow Pipit, 19 Pied Wagtail, 4 Grey and 1 Yellow Wagtail and 3 Reed Bunting all going south, along with 50 Meadow Pipit, 45 Goldfinch, 4 Wheatear, 19 Pied Wagtail, 12 Goldcrest a Black Redstart and a Redwing on site. Offshore 77 Brent Geese went south along with 15 Wigeon and 9 Teal.

Only 9 birds ringed, 6 Goldcrest, 2 Song Thrush and a Wren. 

Tuesday 6th October 2015

The continuing south-easterly winds seem to be holding back any decent numbers of migrants with just a small scattering of new arrivals today.

Migrants included 43 Meadow Pipit, 1 Rock Pipit, 10 Swallow, 15 Robin, 25 Goldfinch, 16 Siskin,  3 Chaffinch, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 25 Goldcrest, 3 Song Thrush, 2 Redwing, 3 Skylark, 4 Wheatear, 1 Common Redstart, 3 Yellow Wagtail, 7 Blackcap, 5 Chiffchaff, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Common Gull, 41 Teal, 14 Wigeon, 2 Tufted Duck, 15 Brent Geese and 2 Cormorant.

Pictured, a Wheatear and a Reed Bunting out on the nature reserve this morning.

Ringing: 8 birds ringed during the morning including 4 Blackcap, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Robin and 1 Great Tit.

Monday 5th October 2015

Albeit a much quieter day at the observatory several migrants were still hanging on. These comprised of 39 Meadow Pipit, 8 Blackbird, 4 Song Thrush, 1 Redwing, 15 Goldcrest, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 3 Wheatear, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 9 Greenfinch, 5 Chaffinch, 5 Goldfinch, 82 Brent Geese, 3 Wigeon, 3 Cormorant, 1 Dunlin, 1 Mediterranean Gull and 1 Common Gull.  

Now that the temporary fencing is down the Wheatears will have to find other perches.

Ringing: 6 birds ringed during the morning which included 3 Goldcrest, 1 Wren, 1 Song Thrush and 1 Blackcap.

Sunday 4th October 2015

Though not as many today as in the last couple of days, there are still around 40 or so Goldcrests on site today.

This Sallow moth is an uncommon visitor to our moth traps.

The weather appears to be about to change,but there are still good numbers of birds around, with several autumn migrants still heading south before the rain arrives. These include Goldcrest(see above), Chiffchaff, with at least 20 on site, 2 Redstart, a late Whitethroat, 15 Blackcap, 30+ Swallow hanging about, as well as 2 Wheatear, 6 House Martin and a Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Ringing today totalled 69 birds including 17 Goldcrest, 16 Chiffchaff, 14 Swallow, 11 Blackcap,4 Blue Tit, 3 Wren, and 1 each of Grey Wagtail, Whitethroat, Great Tit and Great-spotted Woodpecker.