Gib again…

Today at Gib, quite a few birds about, lots of stuff on the move. A spotted flycatcher was in hawthorns near Mill hill. We saw 4 stonechats and a couple of whinchats, 20+ goldcrests, 20+ chiffchaffs, a few willow warblers, a couple of whitethroats, a yellowhammer, a couple of mistle thrushes and a song thrush. Vis-mig was good early on, lots of pipits, finches (goldfinch, chaffinch, linnet, siskin) and over a hundred each of house martins and swallows, a couple of grey wags too, all south. Kev Wilson had a Richard’s pipit, just before we arrived. On the sea at least 10 red-throated divers rested with a few more south. About 10 arctic skuas, a few gannets, 50+ sandwich terns, a couple of great-crested grebes, and a common scoter were all noted, and a female red-breasted merganser was flanked by two female goosanders, south. First time I’ve seen the two species together, great comparison. 3 spotted redshanks showed. Other waders: curlew sand, greenshank, redshank, dunlin, sanderling, ringed plover, grey plover, lapwing, oystercatcher, avocet, snipe, barwit, blackwit, curlew, ruff, knot. We saw a rook, not common at Gib, and a water rail showed nicely on Tennyson’s. About 86 species hit the notebook. Didn’t see any yellow-browed warblers this time.