Thursday 10 November 2011

After a considerable drop in the wind overnight, the clouds blew away early on and the day turned out to be a very pleasant one. Four Mediterranean Gulls and 29 Common Scoters passed by out to sea with over a thousand Razorbills and hundreds of Black-headed Gulls and Kittiwakes in the morning. Two dark-bellied Brent Geese remained on the Narrows, and a Lapwing and a Short-eared Owl were seen on the South end; a Snipe and two Water Rails were in the Withies and wetlands and two Woodcocks were on the mountain. Four Lapland Buntings were the most noteworthy passerines around, although a small passage of finches, pipits and Skylarks overhead amounted to seven Skylarks, 68 Meadow Pipits, 50 Chaffinches, two Greenfinches, 17 Goldfinches, eight Linnets and two Lesser Redpolls.

The most frustrating bird of the day went to a small, Dunlin-sized wader that was scared off Pwll Cain by a female Sparrowhawk late in the afternoon; after this it flew rapidly along the West side, before circling the North end a few times and then disappearing. As it flew away, it called continually with a fluty ‘tsreet’. The bird looked to be grey-brown in colour and had a whitish wing bar, although any other features were hard to see as it flew against a dull sky.

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