I spent a week on Scilly in mid-October and we enjoyed some very warm unseasonal weather. Highlights were Serin, Rustic Bunting, Wryneck, Bluethroat and Red-rumped Swallow.
Back at Needs Ore, Thursday 19th was a blustery but mild day. The male White-tailed Eagle flew level with the Sluice as I was driving to the Sailing Club, the closest I’ve been so far. I do seem to be bumping into at least one of the eagles each time I visit at the moment.
Both Peregrines were present, one flew across the river to Inchmery while the second bird rested underneath the sign on the shingle beach. A little further west along the shingle the Merlin hunched up against the wind.
On the far side at high tide a Bar-tailed Godwit and several Grey Plover were roosting with a handful of Black-tailed Godwit feeding further up the river. A lovely pale rufous juvenile Buzzard was being mobbed by crows over the Weather Station Field.
Seven Swallows headed west through the Wedge Field while seven Mediterranean Gulls flew overhead. On De L’Orne Scrape there were building numbers of Lapwing, at least 100 together with 100 Dunlin and 55 Ringed Plover. Three Spotted Redshank were slightly out of view on the Roosting Stones. Last year, by early November, only one Spotted Redshank remained and only two subsequent winter records suggests that they didn’t spend the winter here. A Green Sandpiper showed really nicely on the Islands in front of NFOC hide.
A brief sea watch produced a Gannet and a Kittiwake with Siskins overhead. A handful of Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters were still on the wing but no butterflies.
Patch Birding 