Isle of Wight Sept 19th-22nd.

Day 3 with the bro.

Our big day out covering what is arguably one of the best areas for scarce and rare migrants on the Island-the West High Down/Alum Bay/Headon Warren area. Located at the extreme western tip of the Island the area provides a variety of coastal habitats to check and a full day is certainly recommended for getting the best out of it. If you are there on a week day you will almost certainly have the place to yourself in terms of birders (and possibly even at weekends!), although the sun will certainly bring out the grockles given the famous Alum Bay coloured sands and the Needles located nearby.
We started by walking the coastal side of  West High Down towards the Needles, not many migrants around apart from a steady stream of Meadow Pipits (480) flying into the breeze. By the time we got out to the Needles end we were starting to wonder if  we were a day late for the goodies. But perseverance is key and I suddenly heard wader calls overhead, like Golden Plover but lower pitched and with a downward inflection. I had a suspicion this was a Dotterel and located the bird circling over the Needles headland, handily it decided to fly back towards us where it's lack of wing bar and compact appearance further reinforced my suspicions. We watched it appear to pitch down on West High Down so we retraced our steps and Jon located it on the ground..a smart Juvenile Dotterel.

Later we headed up onto Headon Warren where two YB Warblers and a Red-backed Shrike had been seen the day before. No sign of the Shrike, but one of the Yellow-browed Warblers gave us some brief views and calls in amongst a big Chiffchaff and Tit flock. Things had really warmed up now and we decided to take a rest at the end of the Warren and watch for raptors, it certainly felt good for a migrant raptor with the warmth and the classic time of day for movement as it was now early afternoon. We were still taken by surprise when our second Honey Buzzard of the week (another dark Juv) suddenly came above the slope being mobbed by a crow right in front of us giving superb views. It looked to be trying to cross Alum Bay to depart over the English Channel from West High Down but in addition to the Crow, 2 Raven intercepted it and began pushing back it out over Alum Bay, eventually it was lost to sight taking a more westerly route towards Dorset.
After this we continued along Headon Warren keeping our eyes to the skies and another migrant raptor was picked up-a Marsh Harrier. So a great day for scarce and uncommon migrants. We added to the variety by finishing up at Yarmouth Station Pools where waders included a Little Stint and 3 Green Sandpipers.

Dark Juv Honey Buzzard taken by Jon Sparshott

The Needles and West High Down viewed from Headon Warren, lots of potential for someone wanting to find their own birds.

Jays are easy to see at West High Down. Although it's a coastal site these birds aren't migrants(although irruptions of this species from the continent do occur) but a resident population using deciduous woodland on the northern edge of the area.

The sunny weather brought out a good late season showing of butterflies including several stunning Small Copper.

Stonechat were prominent at all the coastal sites were visited.