Its October, time for some migrants?

On Tuesday 1st, after leaving Mum at the hospital for a day procedure Dad and I headed off to Winterton in search of some October migrants, hopeful brought in by the proceeding few day's easterly winds. Standing in the car park the wind was still brisk and was going to cause problems, any passerines would surely keep low, but on the sea Dad soon picked up 2 Pintail and 7 Brent Geese. With the breeze we decide to walk the south dunes under the Hermanus hoping the bushes would offer some cover. It was evident there had been a recent fall of Robins and there was a passing of c40 Meadow Pipit, but it was surprisingly quiet. 3 Siskin, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest the combine migrant total after nearly 2 hours searching, although we thought we briefly heard a Yellow-browed Warbler.

An impromptu sea watch in the lea of a dune for 30 minutes was much more successful, with 2 Med Gull, 3 Little Gull, 15 Brent Geese, 2 Red-throated Diver, 1 Great Skua, 13 Wigeon and numerous distant Gannet, Kittiwake and Sandwich Tern. Bird of the day however went to a Black-throated Diver heading south.

We briefly looked in the bushes around the totem pole, but the wind was rushing through them so we decided to get some lunch. Walking back to the car we flushed a single Wheatear and 5 Skylark. Back at the car park c50 Common Scoter were close to the beach, but contained nothing rarer. We had planned to look for the Rose-coloured starling at Caister, but mum called and would soon need collecting.

Throughout the dunes we found lots of large hairy caterpillars, which i believe to be Fox Moth caterpillars.