Light south-easterly winds brought in a few birds on the land and offshore. Grounded migrants included 50 Chiffchaffs, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Firecrest, a Ring Ouzel, 50 Redwings, 70 Song Thrushes, a Mistle Thrush and three Wheatears. Visible migration saw ten Jays, 3000 Starlings, four Grey Wagtails, five Rock Pipits, 16 Siskins and 50 Reed Buntings. A Hobby was hunting around the shoreline,
Over 6.5hours of seawatching produced 167 Brent Geese, 12 Shelduck, 74 Wigeon, 11 Teal, ten Red-breasted Mergansers, 19 Mediterranean Gulls, a Great Skua, nine Arctic Skuas and 343 auks. The highlight of the day was also seen offshore with a Grey Phalarope seen on several occasions.
I ran the Audiomoth last night with some excellent results and call counts including one Golden Plover, three Snipe, 584 Redwings, 912 Song Thrushes and 76 Blackbirds.
Four Porpoises and two Grey Seals were feeding offshore.
There were a couple of notable moths in the traps overnight. A Blair's Mocha was only the fifth Observatory record and this superb micro, Tebenna micalis, was the second record for the Observatory. Three Box-worm Moths and two Delicates were also caught.
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| Blair's Mocha Cyclphora puppilaria and Tebenna micalis Dungeness 10th October 2021 |