A brilliant day for observatory work with lots of coverage throughout the morning. Winds from the South and West and thick and heavy cloud with the approaching bad weather produced a good amount of species diversity.
Migrants at the observatory and on the nature reserve consisted of 228 House Martin, 138 Swallow, 103 Meadow Pipit, 7 Chiffchaff, 5 Wheatear, 4 Blackcap, 3 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Garden Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Common Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Reed Bunting and 1 Goldcrest and all of which to soon be heading southwards.
Sea watching was very entertaining with totals of 193 Wigeon, 105 Teal, 33 Brent Geese, 24 Sandwich Tern, 19 Black-headed Gull, 17 Dunlin, 13 Common Tern, 10 Grey Plover, 8 Pintail, 7 Golden Plover, 7 Gannet, 7 Knot, 5 Oystercatcher, 4 Shoveler, 3 Mediterranean Gull, 3 Shelduck, 3 Sanderling, 1 Turnstone, 1 Gadwall, 1 Common Gull, 1 Common Scoter, 1 Cormorant, 1 Red-breasted Merganser and 1 eclipse male Garganey that flew south with a flock of Teal.
Another Porter's Rustic moth caught this morning which was a nice surprise,
Ringing: 21 birds ringed this morning before the bad weather arrived consisting of 6 Chiffchaff, 5 Meadow Pipit, 3 Blackcap, 2 Garden Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Wren, 1 Robin and 1 Grey Wagtail.