Much Meadow Pipit passage

The Safari couldn't wait to get off alternative Patch 1 and head for the cliffs this morning where hopefully there would be some action. For a change we checked the little park where we park the Land Rover -it has had a Pallas's Warbler in the past - today just a couple of Robins and a Dunnock.

On the cliffs we had a small something flushed off the fence by a dog walker...doh would have liked to have got onto that. Unfortunately it circled round and instead of landing back on the fence behind us as we had hoped it gained height and headed over the hotels and off inland.
The next bird in the gloom of an overcast dawn was a large small passerine that flew determinedly along the lower walk well below us without calling...dunno!

Then we started to pick up Meadow Pipits, just odd ones at first then as the light became proper daylight there seemed to be more of them on the move. In the end we counted 132 in the hour and a half we were out. Pied Wagtails numbered three, one catching insects off the path along the sea wall and two others bounding by. A Grey Wagtail was heard but not seen.

The tide was a long way out and although we didn't concentrate much on the beach and sea we still managed a nice male Eider, a distant flock of about 12 - 15 Pink Footed Geese a long way south of us and a reasonable number of uncounted Redshanks on the beach. Just beyond the feeble surf was a Grey Seal.

As we neared the end of the morning's safari a Skylark came in-off and we had a cheeky Robin in the sunken garden, resident or migrant - that's the question.

In the park by the Land Rover there was no improvement, not even a Blackbird.

The other day we thought our ears were deceiving us when we heard a Tree Pipit which we believed to be a bit too late. It now transpires there was one on Bardsey Island the following day so maybe the dodgy ear/brain combo did actually get it right...

Back at Base Camp we decided to sit out in the garden and a bit more vis migging. A bit of a result as from the bench whilst having a lovely cuppa we got a further 77 Meadow Pipits, a tightly bunched flock of unidentified finches, almost missed these and didn't hear them call as they disappeared too quickly over the roof tops. Two Mistle Thrushes were the first of the autumn. A Greenfinch went south ignoring the two scoffing away on our feeder so that was possibly a migrant. Meanwhile the first Chaffinch in the garden for a long time was at the feeder so that too could well have been a migrant.

The gulls kicked up a stink suggesting a raptor had gone over but we couldn't pick anything up. Really do need to set up that sky watching seat on the garage roof, it would give us a far superior view than the few square (Should that be cubic?) yards we can see from the bench down in the 'pit' - note to self: next house should be at top of hill rather than near the bottom. In the midst of all this migratory mayhem a turtle-killing Helium balloon headed westwards and out to sea to wreak is deadly damage on those unsuspecting marine reptiles.

All that in half an hour.

After some seriously chillied fortification from the remains of last night's huge Special Kebab - word of advice one between two is more than enough! - we went out again to see if there was still any movement occuring - there wasn't! All passage had finished by lunchtime and a full Patch 1 safari gave us nothing out of the ordinary.

Did find a nice clump of orange fungi - anyone know what they are - Dean?
Just Honey Fungus?
Where to next? Nature reserve tomorrow?
In the meantime let us know what's been passing overhead through your outback

Late edit - for some reason we seem to be forgetting Shelducks! Had five go south today and three yesterday - sorry guys must do better!