Weather: SSW force 1 E 3/4 in the afternoon
A really good autumn migration day, with beautifully calm conditions on the sea. Fifty Pink-footed Geese flew over early after the dawn. The first 'nice' bird was a female Pintail followed by 2 Brambling flying south west and lots of passage birds travelling through the islands including 2 Chaffinch ,9 Pied Wagtails and a White Wagtail, about 50 Meadow Pipits, 5 Sklylarks and 2 Song Thrush.
The next excitement of a brilliant day was a Marsh Harrier that came in from the south, circled and drifted high off towards north Wales and was lost to view, 2-3 minutes later it came in over north end and headed over east Hoyle then south down the estuary and dropped low landing on Tanskies.
The first Purple Sandpiper of the autumn was at the north end, on a normal day this would be the headline.
There were limited numbers of the other regular waders seen but a Snipe was in the SK paddock, 2 Peregrines and the Kestrel were logged, also 4 Little Egrets and 2 Grey Herons. The flat calm sea made spotting birds on the sea a little easier than usual,
On the sea list were 6,000 Common Scoter, 4 Red-throated Divers and 9 Great Crested Grebes, while 200 or so Brent floated around the islands with 4 Eiders. In the afternoon the second Yellow-browed Warbler of the year arrived in the obs garden, even if it immediately disappeared after a few minutes, not to be seen again. A few records shots were obtained during the brief visit.
A Stonechat was found on the island in the late afternoon. After dusk 23 Redwings were heard about the island. A great end to a perfect day.
Photos SRW
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