Thick and heavy cloud and a very cold feel to start the day brought a good arrival of birds to the observatory, both on land and offshore.
Land migrants came in the form of a fall of thrushes which consisted of 1,391+ Starling, 110+ Blackbird, 30+ Fieldfare, 8 Song Thrush, 6 Redwing and 1 Mistle Thrush. Others involve 17 Linnet, 16 Goldfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 3 Skylark, 2 Woodcock, 1 Brambling, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Short Eared Owl, 1 Black Redstart and 1 Goldcrest.
This female Bullfinch (above) turned up in one of our mist nets early morning. This species is very scarce here and this is only the second individual that we have trapped and ringed in just the last two years.
Sea watching was very entertaining today with lots of birds on the move and a decent variety. These include 840+ Cormorant, 45 Brent Geese, 44 Wigeon, 35 Common Scoter, 17 Lapwing, 14 Dunlin, 10 Teal, 8 Shelduck, 5 Goldeneye, 4 Eider, 3 Mallard, 3 Tufted Duck, 3 Turnstone, 2 Purple Sandpiper, 2 Snipe, 2 Long tailed Duck, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Black throated Diver, 1 Red-throated Diver, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Gannet, 1 Curlew and 1 Sanderling.
Ringing: 65 birds ringed throughout the day which include 60 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Woodpigeon, 1 Robin, 1 Chaffinch and 1 Bullfinch.