Monday 16 July 2018

A spectacular series of weather events last night saw clouds form and rain fall on the island, officially ending an almost unprecedented drought that has lasted for almost two months. It was enough to mean I don't need to water the vegetables this evening but it's done little to quench the island's thirst for water and the clouds soon parted to leave another pleasant day. Today's wildlife highlight might not look like much but it's an extremely exciting island record. A scraggy Ringlet found in Mark and Sian's garden at Ty Nessaf constitutes the second island record after an individual was found on the Narrows on 12th July 2015. It's a common butterfly across the mainland but there's still no sign of colonisation on the island so it remains an extremely rare visitor to the island.

An unseasonal smart male Yellow Wagtail lingered on the deck briefly early in the morning, whilst Billy and Eve spent most of the afternoon on the mountain reading Chough colour-rings and looking for cetaceans (which culminated in Eve seeing her first ever Risso's Dolphin just offshore!).

Other birds seen today included a Fulmar, 25 Manx Shearwaters, a Grey Heron, a Sparrowhawk, two Kestrels, a Peregrine, a Lapwing, four Whimbrels, six Curlews, two Redshanks, two Common Sandpipers, a Black-headed Gull, a Common Gull, a Sandwich Tern, three Puffins, 25 Swallows, eight House Martins, two Stonechats, seven Wheatears, a Sedge Warbler, two Chiffchaffs, two Willow Warbler, four Chaffinches and 16 Linnets.

The Ringlet was missing half of its hindwing and certainly looked like it'd flown across from the mainland to get here. Yet another impressive sighting to add to what has been a fantastic summer for invertebrates. No doubt the heatwave has had something to do with it.

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