26th July 2017

A pleasingly busy week in the recording area, culminating in the finding of an unseasonal and unexpected adult female Red-backed Shrike this morning (MJP et al.) towards the eastern end of Long Hedge. Passage through the Gap included a Little Gull, 132 Knot, 16 Dunlin, 21 Redshank, a Bonxie, two Shovelers and 125 Puffins (all south), with two Green Sandpipers, 40 Lapwings, 12 Golden Plovers and a Little Egret at the Dams, a Whinchat at the Tip and a report of a Quail near Reighton. A male Ruff sheltered on the Country Park yesterday, with an Arctic Skua south on 24th and a Balearic Shearwater south on 23rd (CW et al.).

A summer-plumaged Knot which dropped into the Dams on 22nd was colour-flagged and ringed, and we soon established in had been originally ringed (way up in the Arctic Circle) in Parsanger, Norway in May last year, and was then seen in the Netherlands four months later. This is the first time it’s been seen this year. The same day produced a Pomarine Skua, 29 Little Gulls, 34 Sanderlings, 73 Knot, two Bonxies and three Arctic Terns south on the seawatch.