Weekend highlights

Sunday morning saw me doing another visible migration watch from the Coastal Park (07:15 - 10:30) with an initially slow start, gradually picking up through the morning, before dropping off around 09:30, with very little moving in the last hour, except small numbers of Skylark and Chaffinch. Totals were as follows:

Grey Heron 1
Lapwing 23
Snipe 4
Skylark 85
Swallow 7
Meadow Pipit 65
Pied Wagtail 3
Grey Wagtail 3
Dunnock 6
Redwing 3
Mistle Thrush 2
Starling 231
House Sparrow 7
Chaffinch 308
Brambing 3
Linnet 111
Redpoll 2
Goldfinch 19
Greenfinch 25
Siskin 9
Reed Bunting 17
Yellowhammer 11

A Whinchat, in the bushes below the inner bank, was a most welcome patch year tick (my 1st since 20th August!) where the three hour watch produced a respectable "big sit" total of 62 species. The warm weather produced a good selection of moths with 8 new species for the trap, pushing the years total to a respectable 235 (all macros) including Dusky-lemon Sallow, and a couple of very smart Merveille du Jours.


Barred Sallow


Blair's Shoulder-knot


Merveille du Jour