September 8th
A day of pretty slow passage at station 2, but there were a few highlights. For example, on arrival at dawn, a Red-breasted Flycatcher was calling from nearby trees - the first reported from the area this autumn.
Later on, in the same area of trees, there was a massive flurry of warbler and Tit activity, that included Green Warbler, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, and a Ficedula Flycatcher, seen poorly. Almost more likely to be Collared or Semi-collared here than Pied. Never mind.
The other main highlight beyond the usual Lesser Spotted Eagle, Pallid Harrier etc, was a juvenile male Goshawk.
To add to all the heard-only lifers from previous days, Grey-headed Woodpecker was heard.
Some typical views of Georgia from the journey home to the accommodation. They love their Watermelons here!
September 9th
After days of clear weather, there was a shower of rain overnight, which really raised hopes of a fall of passerines. To hear Red-breasted Flycatcher and Thrush Nightingale on leaving the house, things looked promising.
Sadly though, they proved to be a flash in the pan, with nothing of real note on the ground up at station 1, or passage in the air. The only trip tick was a group of Raven.
A few moths around the lights of the café in the evening included this unidentified Mother-of-pearl-like Pyralid (appreciate help!)...
...and Diasemiopsis ramburialis.
September 10th
Plenty to talk about today.
A hulking thing flying straight towards us didn't look quite right for an Eagle, when it turned slightly and I realised it was an immature Egyptian Vulture.
Looking out at sea produced a load of Georgia ticks, including many Little Gull, a Great Crested Grebe, and brilliantly, a pale-phase Arctic Skua harassing the Little Gulls, and eventually resting on a floating dead Dolphin!
As well as reasonable raptor passage, there seem to be decent overhead passerine migration going on too, with Roller involved, as well as many Turtle Dove, including a ridiculous flock of c43 (including a Stock Dove - Georgia tick)!
One of the funniest moments of the whole trip occurred when a juvenile Cuckoo with no tail flew by, and someone shouted ''Pin-tailed Sandgrouse!''. To his defence, it did look very weird with no tail, and the ID was not immediately obvious!
A cracking day.
In the evening, I was looking through the pics I got of a juvenile Lesser Spotted Eagle which went by nice and close, when I noticed something strange. Can you spot it?
It appears to be carrying some sort of data-logger/geolocator device!
Unfortunately, I've not yet heard any further details of this bird (not enough detail to ID individual obviously, but hopefully tracking data will pinpoint individual involved), probably from Germany or Hungary.
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