Isle of Wight Sept 19th-22nd.

I was down on my native Isle of Wight for a few days birding with my Bro. The Islands position in the English Channel coupled with it's  various coastal headlands and high points  make it's an ideal place for migration watching. It was just going to be nice to get out with Bro around some of my old haunts, although the serious birder side of things also kicked in with weather maps studied and at least one intensive all day effort planned. It turned out to be a productive few days, with a nice haul of scarce migrants including one of my favourite sights-raptors on active migration.

Day 1.

Ventnor Downs was the chosen site for the first day. The highest point on the Island overlooking the English Channel acts as a magnet for migrating raptors in the autumn. It's probably one of the most reliable locations along the south coast of England to see Honey Buzzards on migration. A day spent here in August/Sept in decent conditions (bright and warm with easterly biased winds is probably best) could get you multiple HB's as well as other migrant raptors-Marsh Harrier, Osprey and Hobby are regular.
The area is also good for passerine migrants and we started the day by checking the bushes where the highlights were single Firecrest, Ring Ouzel and 3 Grasshopper Warbler. One of the Groppers showed really well, these are something of a Ventnor Downs speciality in the autumn with the habitat probably helping to hold this species; extensive areas of bracken and heather rich in invertebrates. The fact that all three birds were flushed from the side of a footpath makes you wonder how many are actually in there in the inaccessible stands of dense vegetation, a mist netting program would probably reveal impressive numbers passing through during August-October.
The numbers were made up by Chiffchaff, there seemed to be a bird in almost every bush and we estimated at least 90 birds. Conversely only 2 Willow Warbler were recorded and we are past the peak migration for this species.
Finishing our round of the bushes we went to the viewing mound mid morning to do a raptor watch. At first it seemed quiet, perhaps a bit too cool and cloudy to be a good raptor day. Eventually the sun came through ,the day warmed up and Common Buzzards started appearing-game on! Then it happened, a dark Juvenile Honey Buzzard flapped lazily in front of us, gave prolonged good views as it circled, gradually gaining height and last seen flying purposely out towards the English Channel-a magic sight. An extra bonus came with a Hobby seen hawking insects.

Ventnor Downs-raptors can often been seen using the Wroxall Bowl to gain height on thermals before departing out to sea.

Dark Juv Honey Buzzard at Ventnor Downs taken by my brother Jon Sparshott.

Day 2.
The second day saw us visit what is probably the Islands most well known migration watchpoint, St Catherines Point at the very southern tip. There were plenty of common migrants to look through but we couldn't come up with anything out of the ordinary. In addition to more good numbers of Chiffchaff, Blackcap were also numerous with at least 45 counted fattening up on the blackberry crop. Another feature at most of the sites we visited during the week was an obvious arrival of Dunnock and Stonechat with todays count at St Catherines involving 29 Dunnock including 15 in one small area of bushes and 13 Stonechat. It's not always about rarities, I like seeing species that are not always thought of as migrants; our count of 15 Dunnock the previous day at Ventnor Downs inlcuded three high flying birds that were clearly on the move.
We had family commitments for the rest of the day but had a big day out planned in the West High Down/Alum Bay/Headon Warren area for Day 3 and found out that 2 Y B Warblers and a Red-backed Shrike had been found there. So something to look for and with a SE wind forecast we had a chance of finding our own good birds too...

Apart from Blackcap and Chiffchaff most migrants were in small numbers at St Catherines Point, this was one of two Spotted Flycatcher present with other species including Redstart, Wheatear and Lesser Whitethroat.

Isolated from mainland England and it's Grey Squirrels, the Isle of Wight has a good population of Red Squirrels.

Blackcap were one of the more numerous migrants encountered during the week.