Scarce at last...

So far the spring has been great, some good days birding, some nice species turning up but that extra bit of quality has been lacking, until now….

With another early start on the 11^th I was in position on the cliffs from 05.00hrs.
Walking north the first trickle of passage was detected and it wasn’t long until the first decent bird of the day was logged – a drake Pochard south along the cliffs with a Mallard!

Other than hirundines vis mig was generally slow –over 12 hours totals of 1142 Swallow, 62 Sand Martin, 40 House Martin, seven Flava, 32 Oystercatcher, a Bar-tailed Godwit, two Whimbrel, 17 Swift and 47 Carrion Crow were the highlights.

Of the very thinly scattered grounded migrants there was one clear highlight, a fantastic find by Chris Bradshaw, who after conducting a BBS at Potter Brompton inland visited Long Nab on the ‘off chance’ and stumbled across a HOOPOE near the ‘white house’. After a little run around it finally settled, unsurprisingly, in the horse paddocks near the ‘white house’ although it would occasionally sit in the road and proved very easy to see – for some!
At least six Wheatear were in the area and I dipped on a Whinchat found later in the evening while a Little Owl was also added to PWC – finally.

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

The next morning saw Chris and I netting at Long Nab – although it was only a short session before we both had other commitments, for me a family outing.
What we caught was pretty standard fare, Lesser Whitethroat, a few Whitethroat and Blackcap etc although a five year old female Chaffinch of ours was still going strong and clearly had a family nearby was interesting with a Reed Warbler being the 4^th to be ringed at Long Nab and a handy addition to PWC.

Passage was almost no existent in the northeast winds so after packing up and checking a few areas we both called it a day.