Another wet and blustery day today with a nice selection of birds on offer. A major Landguard rarity today was the 6th site record of Little Grebe on the sea offshore and when you consider that the previous site records include two washed up dead on the riverbank plus one that was released having been found in Hamilton Road then it could even be deemed to be only the third record ! Previous records are in October 1986, February 1991 (two dead plus one released in severe winter weather) & November 1992.
Migrants either grounded or heading south included 236+ Meadow Pipit, 99 House Martin, 19 Swallow, 6 Wheatear, 4 Common Whitethroat, 3 Chiffchaff, 3 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Spotted Flycatcher (above), 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Goldcrest and 1 Lapland Bunting.
Sea watching kept us busy with totals of 125 Black-headed Gull, 104 Wigeon, 70 Teal, 31 Gannet, 28 Cormorant, 8 Sandwich Tern, 7 Brent Geese, 5 Oystercatcher, 3 Arctic Skua, 3 Common Tern, 3 Grey Plover, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Common Gull, 1 Sanderling and 1 Mediterranean Gull.
Ringing: 20 birds ringed today which were 20 Meadow Pipit.