Weather: no recordable wind at dawn, NNE force 3 in afternoon, sunny
A medium sized bird that was glimpsed in flight from Telegraph house west garden towards the old obs yesterday, was present in the west garden area again this morning at about 8.30 when it again flew off in the direction of the old obs before being seen to fly out of the canoe club garden area about an hour later. It was recognised to be a Nightjar! Unfortunately this rare migrant bird was not seen again despite an extensive search. It is the 4th sighting in the 68 years of observatory recording. We were more fortunate on the last occasion a Nightjar visited the island when it settled on a bench in the corner of the obs garden and then relocated to a branch of a bush just outside the fence for all to see (and some to twitch). Photo from 12th May 2016.
There were no other really exciting happenings today; a large increase of Brent to 57 birds, quite a few for this early in the autumn, also 14 Shelduck and 3 female Goosanders that flew in.
Small migrants were few, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Goldcrests, 5 alba Wagtails, while 6 Meadow Pipits, 6 Robins and 8 Linnets could be classed as such. Eight Rock Pipits are still here, their numbers don't seem to vary much now during the year, also 6 Meadow Pipits, some of them our breeding birds that are still present.
A Great Crested Grebe was logged also 9 Little Egrets, 3 Grey Herons and the Kestrel. Among the waders were 8,000 Oystercatchers, 120 Ringed Plover, 140 Curlew, 80 Dunlin, 70 Redshank and 3 Bar-tailed Godwit.
Photos AS, SRW
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