Migration news 10th September 2010

This was also the week in which to seek out a cryptically-plumaged wryneck. Individuals of this bizarre-looking member of the woodpecker family were sighted from over 30 localities as far apart as the Channel Islands and north-east Scotland.

The chats didn't disappoint either with redstarts, whinchats and wheatears all being seen in relatively high numbers on the east coast. Flycatchers also moved through with spotted and pied being reported in double figures from several coastal watchpoints along the east and south coast.

Whinchat © Mike Weston/BTO 

With the weather systems largely coming from the east, it is no surprise that the bulk of the migrants were seen on the east coast. Even here, however, it was mainly the north-east, from Aberdeen to Spurn Point, which saw the largest arrivals.

This emphasises the importance of local weather patterns: during the early part of the week the wind was coming from the continent and hitting the UK east coast largely north of The Wash. That means that even though East Anglia juts out into the North Sea and is the most easterly point of the UK, arrivals of migrants have been much less evident than those experienced further north. Furthermore, overnight/early morning rainfall along the coast (which often grounds migrating birds) was absent from most of south-east England.

Talking of the east, the 'odd eastern rarity' we predicted last week became two, both containing a strong flavour of the East in their names. Britain and Ireland's 17th eastern olivaceous warbler and fourth Asian brown flycatcher amazingly arrived within four miles of one another, one on Flamborough Head and the other just up the coast at Buckton.

They came from altogether different locations though. Eastern olivaceous warblers breed as close as Hungary (a 'mere' 900 miles) whilst Asian brown flycatchers breed no closer than the upper Ob' River in Russian Siberia, a cool 2,500 miles from the east coast of Yorkshire. An altogether incredible feat of migration for a bird weighing no more than two 20p pieces! What a shame it was in the wrong direction... this species normally winters in South-East Asia.

Buff-breasted sandpiper © Ron Marshall/BTO 

So what for the week ahead? Hurricane Earl moved up the eastern seaboard as birds were beginning to leave the USA for the winter and a few North American waders have already turned up in this country, there are around ten buff-breasted sandpipers this side of the Atlantic, predictably all in the west.

The smart (or optimistic?) money is on a few songbirds following suit. So how about a nice red-eyed vireo in the Outer Hebrides by this time next week? On the migration front, things should slow a little on the land. However, seabird migration off the west coast ought to be impressive with good numbers of Arctic skuas on the move.