Monday 7th October

A White-rumped Sandpiper was an all too brief visitor to The Bight on the dropping tide, the fourth for the Warren after birds in May & July 1998 and November 2013.  An incredible third North American wader in the last three weeks, the Long-billed Dowitcher, in an area with no general access, again getting second billing.

White-rumped Sandpiper - Lee Collins

Also in the estuary 74 Dunlin and Ringed Plover, 21 Bar and a Black-tailed Godwit, 19 Greenshank, 10 Sandwich and a Common Tern, a Pale-bellied Brent Goose and a Kingfisher.

Elsewhere four Arctic Skua and a Balearic Shearwater flew S early morning and a Cetti's Warbler was on the Golf Course, occurring for the eighth successive autumn.

Year list addition:

176. White-rumped Sandpiper

Other Wildlife: The recent weather continues to encourage fungi, including a new species for the Recording Area, Shaggy Scalycap Pholiota squarrosa along with Steely Bonnet Mycena pseudocorticola and Purple Jellydisc Ascocoryne sarcoides.

Shaggy Scalycap Pholiota squarrosa - Alan Keatley

Steely Bonnet Mycena pseudocorticola - Alan Keatley

Insects included at least eight Common Darter, three Migrant Hawker, ten Speckled Wood, five Small White and two Peacock.

Hoverflies are also beginning to reduce in number, but did include Gossamer Baccha elongata and Tiger Hoverfly Helophilus pendulus, Spotted Meliscaeva M. auricollis and Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax.