Saturday 17 August 2019

With the wind still from the west and with some strength, the boat was not running and seawatching made up most of the day.

Seawatching was done in the morning and the evening totaling around eight hours and although the passage was slow it did come up with a couple of good birds, the highlight of which being our first Sooty Shearwater of the year. Arctic Terns put in a good show with 263 heading south throughout along with a single Common Tern and 25 Sandwich Terns. Other totals included 3183 Manx Shearwaters, 55 Fulmars, 883 Kittiwakes, three each of Great and Arctic Skua, five Common Scoter and 114 Gannets.

Waders put in a good show also as high tide hit it was easy to count them all, both bays and the rocks around the narrows and south en produced 37 Turnstones, six Redshanks, 64 Curlew, 14 Whimbrel, two each of Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Sanderling. More counts from today included 145 Linnets, a single Goldfinch, five Chaffinch, the Spotted Flycatcher at the observatory still, 17 Pied Wagtail, 30 Rock Pipits, 62 Meadow Pipits, five Black-headed Gulls, two Kestrels and a single male Sparrowhawk

A juvenile Arctic Tern stopping in solfach as it heads south                            Lewis Hooper

Aumtun Lady's-tresses - the first of the many spikes of this delicate Orchid are starting to appear now, the scientific name is Spiranthes spiralis the genus name is from the Greek 'speira' meaning spiral and 'anthos' meaning flower

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