News from Carr Vale over the past week is that it’s not been a bad week, indeed it’s been quite productive with a new migrant recorded pretty much every day. On 26th long-stayers included two Pink-footed Geese, three Wigeon, 35 Gadwall, eight Teal, five Pochard, the pair of Oystercatchers and Common Tern although the latter species is usually very brief in it’s appearances at the moment. Otherwise the highlights have been on 21st Water Rail, seven Oystercatchers (site record I believe), two Wood Sandpipers for 13 minutes before the left north (19th record for the (patch), singing Grasshopper Warbler and two Yellow Wagtails. On 22nd bird of the day was a first winter Little Gull (14th record), which remained until 23rd whilst other birds logged on 22nd included two extra Oystercatchers, a Common Sandpiper, a Redshank (only 4th this year), first winter Common Gull, a Peregrine and a reported Raven. On 23rd in addition to the Little Gull we saw two Common Sandpipers, a first winter Common Gull and a Peregrine whilst the 24th produced six Grey Lag Geese, Whimbrel, Greenshank (new for the year), Common Sandpiper, am adult intermedius Lesser Black-backed Gull, Grasshopper Warbler and several Yellow Wagtails. On 25th a morning visit produced six Grey Lag Geese again, three brief Arctic Terns, (new for the year), Lesser Whitethroat and four Yellow Wagtails. An afternoon visit in view of the weather produced another Whimbrel that left north ahead of a thunderstorm but more interesting was a hybrid Swallow x House Martin. From behind it superficially looked like a Red-rumped Swallow which caused the heart to miss a beat but closer views showed that the front end was a Swallow whilst the rear was more house Martin complete with white rump. Bird of the day and currently bird of the year was briefly present on 26th when a Sandwich Tern (only third record for the site) appeared at 0715 but it only stayed a few minutes and then when we’d turned our backs it left, direction unknown. Also on 26th an extra Oystercatcher, two Peregrines, the hybrid Swallow x House Martin again briefly and a White Wagtail. As I said not a bad week, let’s hope this little purple patch continues .