Contrary to todays forecast of a bright morning then cloud and rain midday on the weather was reversed with a bright afternoon but this morning started off misty with drizzle clearing to a very low cloud-base
on a cool SW>3 at 11 degrees.
The birding was as dull as the weather this morning, with a good gull count being the highlight, with 42 LBB, 5 Black Headed and 2 Herring gull on the north bank along with 2 Wheatear, a juv Kestrel and 1 juv Peregrine.
Just a juv Tufted on the water and several Meadow Pipits around the edges. On the way back the usual farm and field checks just produced the pictured Herring gull.
Checking back through 5 years of records for September waders at Fly Flatts I had only 1 Common Sandpiper and 1 Dunlin, telling me that the wader season at this site is probably over this year so I will have to turn my attention to passage migrants turning up in the compound and lagoon area as well as watching for wildfowl, with Pink Footed Goose movement only a good week away, usually around the 12th, as well as duck species visiting the water.
September at this site has always been good for Spotted Flycatcher, Grasshopper Warbler, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff , Willow Warbler and Ring Ouzel, as well as Black Redstart, though the latter gave me a miss last year. A matter now of patiently waiting to see what comes my way.
Also visible migration time is upon us although Fly Flatts is a poor flight path with being at the wrong side of the eastern ridge and, with things to sort in a morning before I leave, by the time I get up there for 0745 hrs I just get the tail end of it, apart from the extra busy moving mornings which stretch on until 1000 hrs.
Having said that, the forecast for morning is very wet and windy on a south easterly with poor visibility, possibly brightening after midday.
BS