31st October

Weather: Another warm night with temperatures consistently around 15 degrees. With constant cloud cover I'm guessing a trough going through would be undetected on the thermometer. The southerly winds seemed light to moderate extending all the way into France.

Brean Down: 2 The Gem, 2 Pearly Underwing, 2 Dark Sword-grass, 4 Silver Y , 3 Large Yellow Underwing and double figures of Udea ferrugalis. Surprise of the night was Chinese Character.

30th October

The Gem

Scarce Bordered Straw

Weather: A warm night hovering around 14.5 degrees, partly cloudy and a consistent 8mph SSW wind. Last nights sun set time: 16:38hrs

Brean Down: 17 Silver Y, 1 Scarce Bordered Straw, 1 Gem, 2 Pearly Underwing, 11 Udea ferrugalis, 2 Large Yellow Underwing, 1 Lesser Yellow Underwing. 16 of the 17 Silver Y came in before 1:30am and the RDP's came in throughout the night. All the other migrants including the underwings came in between 1:30am and 3:30am.

29th October

Weather: A cold clear night down to 6 degrees, little wind until the early hours of the when light southerlies turned into 10mph southerlies by late morning at which time a tip of an occlusion went through bringing some rain for a period. A slight raise in temperatures between 2:30am and 3am suggested a weak front/trough went through which produced nothing in the garden traps.

Brean Down: 2 Wheatear, 10 Siskin, 5 Redpoll, 15 Skylark, 40 Chaffinch, 3 Bullfinch, 5 Pied Wagtail made up the migrant tally. 5 Red Admiral, 1 Migrant Hawker also seen.

Weston STW: Arrivals noted of 10+ Rock Pipit, 100 Lapwing, 6 Golden Plover. A Merlin, Spotted Redshank and a Spoonbill all on the Axe.

Sand Point: 1 Yellowhammer

28th October

Cold can clear over night with little wind and fog by morning. A rise in temperatures between 3:30am and 5am.

2 RDP 1 in the trap and 1 on a fence at dusk. Also Merveille du Jour and Satellite.

27th October

Crown copyright published by the Met Office

Worle: 1 Redstart (A.Hockey)

Mothing: Here at Weston last nights trough came through about 11:15pm bringing just a lone RDP on the leading edge. Unfortunately it must have been quite a deep trough as it rained quite a bit afterwards. The Warm front hit about 2:30am by which time I had already given up. Looking at the charts and weather data you can see that it took 2.5 hours for the warm front to reach Weston from where it is at 12am level with the French coast. These timings could be useful when predicting migrant arrivals in the future.

26th October

A cool start to the morning with temperatures around 8 degrees, mainly clear sky and a cool 8-9 mph SSE wind.

Sand Bay/Point: 2 Swallows flew south early morning but other than this vismig was almost non-existent. 40 Curlew headed down river most of which ended up in Sand Bay. A trickle of Black-headed Gulls down river also. In the bay 110 Curlew and 110 Dunlin.

25th October

Just 2 Udea ferrugalis in the garden actinics. A cold night with some heavy rain at times and strong winds. The ferrugalis seem to have come in during the last few hours before dawn.

24th October

Female Eppirita sp.

Another promising night for the moths but only garden traps ran producing singles of Silver Y and Udea ferrugalis. A fresh Satellite was the highlight on last nights trapping.

22nd October

Gem Mecyna asinalis
Cosmopolitan

Weather: Mainly clear sky over night with a moderate southerly wind.

Brean Down moths: A very interesting night on the down with a few migrant stragglers in until 1:30am. It all went quiet as the temperature dropped until 3am when a weak front came through lifting temperature and then the main arrival of migrants started spiraling down from the sky. 1 Cosmopolitan, 1 Gem, 1 Mecyna asinalis, 15 Udea ferrugalis, 6 Pearly Underwing, 4 Dark Sword-grass, 4 Silver Y. Other highlights some of which are to be confirmed are Dusky-lemon Sallow, Autumnal Moth, Crescent Dart.

Burnham-on-Sea: A Delicate, Udea ferrugalis and 3 Silver Y

22nd October

Wheatear

Black Redstart

Weather: Sunny and partly cloudy with a 10+mph wind.

Brean Down: A small amount of passage noted. 15 Redpoll, 10 Siskin, 2 Crossbill, 20 Meadow Pipit, 40 Chaffinch, 10 Greenfinch, 20 Goldfinch. Also recorded 1 Ring Ouzel, 2 Merlin, 1 Black Redstart, 1 Wheatear, 1 Chiffchaff.

Garden moth trap: The recent southerlies extending down towards southern Europe currently but the cold feel doesn't bring much hope for migrants. Friday night hasn't been productive nationally. The garden trap produced singles of Silver Y, Merveille du Jour, Green-brindled Crescent and Oak Nycteoline.

21st October

Weather: A wind swing to SSW 9mph with 100% cloud cover.

Axe Estuary 8:15 to 8:45. Rather dull passage today:

37 Black-headed Gulls

10 Woodpigeon

2 Siskin

5 Pied Wagtail

145 Starling

7 Goldfinch

1 Reed Bunting

20 Greenfinch

127 Chaffinch

1 Reed Bunting

1 Brambling

1 Yellowhammer

1 Grey Wagtail

20th October

Weather: Mainly clear sky with 10% high level cloud and a cold WNW 5-6mph wind

Comment: Many birds travelling at height due to the light winds. Yellowhammers recorded at several UK sites today.

Sand Point 8:05 - 8:50:

3 Mistle Thrush

1 Yellowhammer

6 Reed Bunting

265 Chaffinch

72 Greenfinch

2 Siskin

2 Lesser Black-backed Gull

2 Crossbill

9 Skylark

138 Woodpigeon

3 Goldfinch

183 Starling

2 Curlew

7 Redpoll

1 Song Thrush

1 Stock Dove

2 Brambling

1 Redwing

1 Pied Wagtail

1 Linnet

702 birds, 20 species

19th October

Weather: Clear sky with a cold 8mph north-westerly wind.

Comments: The pulse from the Baltic has largely gone through now leaving British movers and some Baltic stragglers going through. Woodpigeons in central and north-west England are now starting to move.

Sand Point: Vis mig from 7:45am to 8:30am all heading west

695 Chaffinch

565 Starling

5 Redpoll

3 Siskin

4 Meadow Pipit

3 Brambling

12 Goldfinch

29 Greenfinch

8 Woodpigeon

7 Redwing

1 Redshank

2 Great Black-back Gulls

2 Reed Bunting

9 Lesser Black-back Gulls

1 Pied Wagtail

11 Fieldfare

1 Skylark

1358 birds, 17 species

16th October

Weather: Light southerly winds overnight swinging south-westerly and strengthening throughout the morning. QNH falling and a weakening cold front through early morning bring some low cloud and very light drizzle clearing by mid-morning bring some sunshine.

Sand Point: Per P.Gregory: 07:00-11:00. All passage

due west along the Point:
Chaffinch 1340
Starling 1430
Meadow Pipit 53
Linnet 17
Siskin 21
Greenfinch 7
Crossbill 3
redpoll 4
Goldfinch 26
Brambling 2
Pied Wagtail 2
Reed Bunting 2
Skylark 13
Greylag Goose 2
Grey Heron 1
Golden Plover 25
Shelduck 44 up river at height in small groups
Other stuff around:
Peregrine 1
Wheatear 1
Chiffchaff 3
Little Egret 1
Bar-tailed Godwit 1

Brean Down: 1 Yellowhammer, 100 Siskin, 100 Goldfinch, 60 Chaffinch, 10 Redpoll. An influx of Blackbirds and Robins at the back of the down. There were a lot of Robins around yesterday also.

15th October

The high pressure on 13th over the UK moving over the north sea and creating and easterly airflow to the southern half of Britain on 14th.

Weather: Light easterly wind with clear sky overnight giving cooler temeratures 0f 8 degrees.

Less overnight passage noted from calling birds than the previous night.

Brean Down: 6 Crossbill, 200 Goldfinch, 1 Swallow, 50 Starling, 20 Linnet, 3 Wheatear, 10 Redpoll, 20 Siskin, 5 Skylark. A bird heard calling at the back of the down before the farm was beleived to be Greenish Warbler but unfortunately never showed itself. On the lepidoptera front 30 Red Admirals, 1 Wall Brown, 1 Peacock, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Speckled Wood and a Silver Y.

14th October

Merveille du Jour

Pearly Underwing

Dusky-lemon Sallow

Very faded but ID based on head colour and wing shape.

Weather: A light south-easterly breeze with some high level cloud cover and over night temperatures hovering around 14 degrees.

Brean Down: Little evidence of last nights migrant activity this morning instead a good passage off the Welsh coast was noted. 1 Ring Ouzel, 4 Mistle Thrush, 20 Redwing, 10 Skylark, 25 Redpoll, 60 Siskin, 4 Crossbill, 300 Chaffinch, 150 Linnet, 1,200 Goldfinch, 100 Meadow Pipit, 15 Pied Wagtail, 900 Swallow, 500 House Martin, 2 Song Thrush, 5 Reed Bunting, 2 Brambling, 5 Greenfinch.

On the moth front 30 Udea ferrugalis, 7 Silver Y, Dusky-lemon Sallow and 3 Pearly Underwing. 1 Merveille du Jour could also have been a migrant. 2 Red Admirals seen during the morning.

Sand Point: Per A.Hockey: 3 Mistle Thrush, 6 Redwing, c.50 Fieldfare, 5 Swallows, 5 Wheatear inc a possible Greenland, 30+ Meadow Pipit, 8 Skylark, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 5+ Goldcrest + a good number of other birds on the move in/off the sea from the North-west.

13th October

Crocidosema plebejana

Weather: Westerlies dying out overnight as high pressure moves over the UK bring windless morning with fog. Overnight conditions were mostly windless with thin high level cloud and a full moon. Temperatures hovering around 14 degrees.

Redwings could be heard moving through during the early hours of the morning following influxes in the North-east of England. Spurn reported over 8,000 yesterday.

Lepidoptera: Migrants included 15 Udea ferrugalis, 5 Silver Y, 1 Pearly Underwing and 2 Red Admirals. Also a new moth for me Crocidosema plebejana

8th October

Still nothing to report on the bird front from Weston. Many birds leaving Norway last night but heading south and reaching speeds of 100km/h as they were picked up on radar ascending at dusk and reaching Holland just after mid-night. Any favourable winds from now for the next few weeks will produce falls on the east coast which will filter through the country.

7th October

Figure of Eight

Common Tern

Common Tern

Nothing to report on the bird front.

Sand Point moths: Figure of Eight new for year.

5th October

Bedellia somnulentella all over Weston currently

Sadly nothing to report on the bird front.

Migrant Moths: Vestal in the garden, a Small Marbled at Burnham and Dark Mottled Willow at Taunton.

3rd October

Vestal

Hellula undalis Old World Webworm from Burnham

Brean Down moths: The last of the southerly winds as a wind change to westerly is due to take place. 3 Vestal, 2 Dark Sword-grass, 1 Pearly Underwing, 1 Scarce Bordered Straw, 15 Rusty Dot Pearl, 5 Silver Y the migrant total. Also Yellow Belle, Flounced Chestnut, November Moth agg, Mallow, Oak Nycteoline.

2nd October

Delicate

Mallow

Sand Point: 1 Wryneck at Sand Point this morning (P.Gregory)

Brean Down: 1 Delicate, 5 Udea ferrugalis, 2 Silver Y

Weston: Dewick's Plusia D.Agassiz garden

1st Ocotber

Scarce Bordered Straw

Flounced Chestnut

Pearly Underwing

Brean Down moths: 2 Scarce Bordered Straw, 3 Pearly Underwing, 12 Rusty Dot Pearl, 7 Silver Y made up the migrants. Also Dark Arches, Turnip, Cypress Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, Light Emerald, Brimstone, Frosted Orange, Green-brindled Crescent, L-album Wainscot, Pale Mottled Willow, Square-spot Rustic, Common Wainscot, Large Wainscot, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Engrailed, Beaded Chestnut, Lunar Underwing, Autumnal Rustic, Flounced Chestnut, Mallow, Black Rustic, Barred Sallow, Sallow, Garden Pebble, Acleris rhombana, Angle Shades, Vapourer, Feathered Ranunculus, Blair's Shoulder-knot, Mottled Beauty, Green Carpet, The Brick, Vine's Rustic (39 species).

Garden moth trap: 1 Silver Y, Brindled Green.