I recently received an email from Jon Heath and records from his garden in north Chesterton, Cambridge. The bird list covers those recorded as night time flyovers then identified by recorded calls on night time passage/migration (“noc-mig”). The July bulletin of the Cambridgeshire Bird Club has a more complete list. These discoveries are fascinating and open up new dimensions in the study of bird movements; Quail and Turnstone are county rarities.

Are these birds moving on a broad front or are they following the NW/SE trajectories of the Nene/Ouse/Cam river valleys as suggested by Graham Easy in the 1980’s from his observations of Skuas in autumn over Milton and Cambridge flying south west? Are they just night-time movements or do day-time movements occur also but too high to see and background noise make them too difficult to record? Or, are they night-time migrants attracted to the city lights?

Whimbrel passage is particularly interesting. The only place they breed in the UK is Fetlar in Shetland. They are breeding waders of the northern tundras. I have just returned from Donegal; Whimbrels on their southward passage were the commonest shore bird especially around rocky coves. Guy Belcher’s record of 43 over Little Shelford in September 2018, Jon’s records from Cambridge and recent sightings of Whimbrels from Norfolk and Suffolk show that they migrate on a very broad front. I suspect the birds in Ireland continue a westerly transit and winter on the Canary Islands.

Jon writes: “Here is the list of waders (and notable others) for July over my garden. I recorded 18 out of 31 nights and the numbers indicate the minimum number of birds which were calling whilst flying over.”

Coot x 1	Redshank x 5
QUAIL x 1	Black-tailed Godwit x 2
Common Sandpiper x 5	Dunlin x 3
Little Grebe x 1	Ringed Plover x 1
Whimbrel x 3	TURNSTONE x 1
Little Ringed Plover x 3	Oystercatcher x 1

In addition, Jon has the following exceptional records of two micro moth species: “The micros moths which I caught are (I believe) both firsts for the county: Vitula biviella on July 24^th and Acompsia schmidtiellus on July 29^th. Also, a spectacular Scarlet Tiger was caught on June 29^th which is also quite rare in Cambridgeshire”.

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bobjarman99@btinternet.com Thanks to Jon Heath for his exceptional records.