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Sunday 7 October 2018

6th Oct – A northeasterly blast

The main feature of Saturday 6th October was a strong and gusty north to northeasterly wind, which must have touched gale force at times and which turned the Landing Bay into a heaving maelstrom, leading to the cancellation of the Oldenburg from Ilfracombe and an enforced extra day or missed day on the island, depending which side of the channel you were looking from...

After some early rain, skies gradually brightened, giving way to bright sunshine in the afternoon.  Daytime migrants such as finches, pipits and hirundines were able to harness the NE blast to tack across towards Hartland Point in surprisingly good numbers from mid-morning onwards, the counts below being just a sample of what moved through.

Millcombe was pretty much blown out and watching in the few sheltered spots suggested that there probably wasn't much skulking around anyway, though the Great Spotted Woodpecker was still present. A roundup of the rest of the day's more notable records includes: single Sparrowhawk, Golden Plover and Merlin, five Kestrels, four Skylarks, 54 Swallows, three House Martins, two Stonechats, a Wheatear, 20 alba wagtails, a Grey Wagtail, 222 Meadow Pipits, 18 Rock Pipits (including a flock of 15 feeding on a sheltered sunny slope at Dead Cow Point), 106 Goldfinches and 83 Linnets.

Observations by Tim Davis & Tim Jones.

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