September 2025

30th. Chysauster Ancient Village - good views of a wryneck.

Two northern wheatears at Land's end Airfield were doing what the Isabelline wheatear was doing a few days ago, and almost had me fooled. Firecrest in Nanquidno valley.

29th. No sign of the Isabelline wheatear at Land's End Airport early morning. It was reported from the Nanquidno road at 14.30h, so I headed back and saw a well-marked northern wheatear from there. At about 18.00h I picked up a distant, nondescript wheatear about half a mile distant. Was it the Isabelline - I can't say for sure?. Otherwise I saw 2 redstart and about 15 golden plover at Land's End cycle track, and the highlight of the day was the time at St Gothian, watching red-necked and grey phalaropes on the pool at close range, and a snow bunting. I saw a curlew sandpiper, ruff, 20 bar-tailed godwit, a grey plover and the returning spoonbill at the Hayle Estuary causeway.

24th. Slimbridge: 5 spoonbill, cattle egret, 5 spotted redshank, ca. 20 ruff.

23rd. Firecrest at the Zoo Bank, Clifton Down.

22nd. A juvenile turtle dove at the Watercress Farm rewilding project. There have been some captive breeding/release programmes recently that have not been endorsed by many conservation groups, so the origin of this bird remains uncertain. At least a hundred were released near Bruton, 50 in Devon, though this bird looks like a recently fledged juvenile.

Ivy bees are in the garden now.

20th-21st. At least 10 grey partridge and 7 red kite sightings between Salisbury and Bath, mainly from he A36 around the Steeple Langford area.

19th. Two peregrines in a chase over Westbury Park. Around this time I identified a skua that was found dead near Banwell as an adult long-tailed skua with broken streamers.

18th: A red-necked phalarope and 2 grey phalarope at Cheddar Reservoir. Also present were 3 glossy ibis, common tern, black tern, 3 curlew sandpiper, 10+ dunlin, 2 ringed plover and 3 ruff. A first-winter red-backed shrike at Portbury Wharf.

13th. Chew Valley Lake with Adrian. The white-tailed eagle has returned - it is a 2nd calendar year female originally from Lewis that was released on the Isle of Wight last summer as part of the reintroduction programme. We watched it at distance from Woodford Lodge. I watched it carry a leafy branch and catch what looked like a small fish in the shallows. It was mobbed by a red kite occasionally.

An osprey (male?) flew west through Heron's Green.

There were 29 glossy ibis in Heron's Green Bay. Apparently there were 99 around the lake yesterday, and there mas been a major influx into Britain. A hobby was also present.

I guess that white-tailed eagle, osprey and glossy ibis are all potential future breeding species at the lake.

2nd-6th. Cornwall. On 2nd there were 2 Arctic skua, ca. 5 storm petrel and 15+ Sandwich terns past the Island in the morning. I watched the 4 dotterel at Trevilly near Nanjizel.

At Drift Reservoir there was a pectoral sandpiper, wood sandpiper, 6 green sandpiper, 6 common sandpiper, 6 greenshank, ringed plover, curlew, peregrine, 3 wheatear, a dead mole, a dead mole, small red damselfly and black-tailed skimmer.

Seawatching in W and WNW winds off the Island on 3rd, with migration in full swing. 53 common scoter, 1 teal with scoter, ca. 15 Balearic shearwater, 2 sooty shearwater, ca. 15 Cory's shearwater, ca. 40 storm petrel, ca. 20 Arctic skua, 3 bonxies, ca. 200 sandwich tern, 30+ Arctic tern, a few common tern, 5 Sabine's gulls, 2 kittiwakes, ca. 5 sanderling, ca. 20 dunlin, ca. 10 knot, ca. 40 whimbrel, 2 bar-tailed godwit with a whimbrel flock, 1 grey phalarope, ringed plover and common sandpiper both heard.

The passage became even stronger on 4th, and I watched from 07.00-13.00h, then about 17.00-19.30h, seeing 3 common scoter, 4 teal, 2 mallard, ca. 20 Cory's shearwater, 2 sooty shearwater, 1 Balearic shearwater, ca. 40 storm petrel, 2 Leach's petrel giving good views in evening, 1 possible Wilson's petrel, ca. 30 Arctic skua, one pale-phase juvenile long-tailed skua, 3 bonxies, 1 little gull, 39 Sabine's gull (7 in a flock with kittiwake, day total was 47 with sightings by Liam and Alan), ca. 15 kittiwakes, 1000+ terns, mainly Arctic, 1 little tern, 3 black tern, ca. 20 whimbrel, 2 bar-tailed godwit with whimbrel, 2 grey phalarope.