Today is a big day in the NOA year, and sadly for such a beautiful autumn day it meant being inside! September is annual report publishing time, and it also means stuffing close to 1000 envelopes to send out to all our fabulous members. Luckily, there was a crack team of 7 on-hand to make light work of it. Thank you to Ann, Barry, Ed, Keith, Lucy and Steve for your help. We were at the obs for a few hours before the great packaging, and there wasn’t a huge amount of action over land. A trickle of Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and Swallows were moving west, and 6 Jay went over the pines, but otherwise it was fairly quiet.

Out to sea was a different matter though, and despite the unfavourable wind meaning everything was a long way away, there was clearly some movement on. In an hour Ben had 12 Razorbill, 10 Red-throated Diver, 2 Arctic Skua and a Little Gull.

In the afternoon, Short-eared Owl came in off the sea and landed in the forestry, and a lovely Lapland Bunting was unearthed by Ben on the saltmarsh at Thornham Channel.

Moths were very quiet today, a sign of the cooler temperatures with the highlight being a Lesser Yellow Underwing. Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies were making the most of the early morning sun on the Buddleia around the Obs.

Packing team

Shannon