Migration picks up 20th August 2021

An early morning pre-work walk from 6am was encouraging. Along the beach after 10 mins, a small flock of 11 Yellow Wagtails headed south followed by another 2 only 5 mins later. This is good record for this scarce species. A Grey Wagtail heading high N was my first for the autumn. The bushes along the beach were best for warblers on my walk. 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 8 Willow Warblers, and 4 Blackcaps. Overhead 6 Sand Martin headed south.

The backfields were were sunlit in the early morning light and a 1w male/f Northern Wheatear was on the path.

Other birds of note were a Greenshank (uncommon here) calling and flying south, over 100 Mediterranean Gulls along the beach and flying inland, presumably to the ploughed fields, and at least 8 Common Whitethroat, 5 Sandwich Terns, 2 Swift and 5 House Martin moving south. On the beach several fresh Painted Ladies were evident as well as a Small Tortoiseshell and Common Blues.