Monday 24 August 2015

After the arrival of four 'Next Generation Birders' onto the island on Saturday, a further four individuals joined this week's group on Monday morning. Hopefully they can look forward to a brilliant week of ringing, birding and mothing! It wasn't a bad start either, with a great host of species recorded on a bright and sunny day.

There was something of a chat theme running through the day, with a small arrival including the following: 20 Robins, one Common Redstart, one Whinchat, 16 Stonechats and 45 Wheatears. In terms of warblers, the numbers by the day's end were singles of Common and Lesser Whitethroat, three Blackcaps, 11 Chiffchaffs, 20 Willow Warblers and 16 Goldcrests, along with six Spotted Flycatchers. A movement of hirundines overhead during the day saw the following figures logged: six Sand Martins, 69 Swallows and 19 House Martins. Onto the non-passerines...a good movement of seabirds out to sea saw the following flying south: six Fulmars, 179 Gannets, 34 Common Scoters, two Mediterranean Gulls, six Black-headed Gulls, 1001 Kittiwakes, 34 Common Terns, 25 Arctic Terns and 60 Commic Terns. A good gathering of waders at high tide included three Ringed Plovers, Purple Sandpipers, 11 Dunlins, one Whimbrel, 34 Curlews, 10 Redshanks, three Common Sandpipers, 13 Turnstones.

In the evening, a Manx Shearwater ringing session was a successful trip to Nant Valley, where many juvenile birds out of the burrows were found and ringed. A real bonus was the trapping and ringing of four Storm Petrels, with a further single bird re-trapped.


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a juvenile Willow Warbler

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Seawatching (top) and checking the moth trap (lower) in front of the observatory with some of the 'NGBs'

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