East meets West

It has been an exciting week with new arrivals from the east and west this week. Top billing goes to the Eastern Kingbird found on Barra in the Outer Hebrides on Thursday. This large flycatcher is a widespread breeding bird in Canada and the US and has been previously found twice in Ireland following sustained westerly winds. The Kingbird joined an impressive cast of birds from North America found during the week: two Swainson's Thrushes, four Red-eyed Vireos and singles of Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Red-eyed Vireo by Luke Delve

Arriving from the opposite direction, birds of Scandinavian and Siberian origin continued to arrive despite the prevailing westerly winds. The Yellow-browed Warbler invasion slowed to a trickle, with only single figure counts from coastal watchpoints. However, a few more were noted away from the coast, including one at the BTO's Nunnery Lakes reserve.

Yellow-browed Warbler at the Nunnery Lakes by Neil Calbrade

In terms of more widespread migrants, 1,450 Swallows passed Christchurch Harbour, Dorset during the week and there were counts of several hundred birds from other migration watchpoints. While a handful of House Martins are still feeding young in nests, the majority are on the move south and over 1,000 were counted moving past Filey, East Yorkshire. Pink-footed Geese arrived in numbers this week and the count of 2,000+ passing Spurn, East Yorkshire was the highest noted on the east coast this week. Several sites reported increased numbers of Goldcrest and the species should reach a peak later next month.

Reporting rate of Goldcrest on BirdTrack

All but one of the active tagged BTO Cuckoos have crossed the Sahara and are currently spread between Niger and Chad. Cuckoo "Larry" has jumped ahead of the rest and has reached the Republic of Congo. As of this morning, Cuckoo "Jack" is still in southernmost Italy, but looks set to make the perilous crossing any day soon.

Current location of the BTO-tagged Cuckoos

The south-westerly airflow looks likely to remain in place over western Britain and Ireland into early next week and could well drop another North American rarity or two onto western headlands. A weak low pressure system moving through the Channel on Saturday could bring some north-easterly winds to eastern Britain for Sunday and Monday. This could result in another wave of Yellow-browed Warblers arriving here, as well as winter thrushes. Surprisingly few Ring Ouzels have been reported so far this autumn so that is one bird to look for this weekend on the east coast.

One to look for this weekend - Ring Ouzel by John Proudlock/BTO

Rarer passerines may also make an appearance, and such after species as White's Thrush, Red-flanked Bluetail and Red-throated Pipit all having a track record of making appearance at this time of year. All this makes for an interesting mix of birds on the move and well worth going out no matter which part of the country you are in.

Stephen McAvoy