Monday 8 June 2020

Today offered a nice change as the weather had warmed up again, the wind had dropped and the cloud had cleared up quite nicely!

Looking over Carreg Fawr, towards the North End from the Mountainside.

George woke up at dawn to set out on another Breeding Bird Survey, but when he got up it was unexpectedly windy (too windy to do the survey) so he grabbed some more sleep before getting up again later on for Census.

Before Sam and George headed out to do census, Steve radioed to say he had heard what he thought was a Blyth's Reed Warbler singing in the garden. After a few extra short snippets of song, and listening back to the recording he had got just before, it was quite clear that was exactly what it was! Another nice bird to be added to the year list, and although these are becoming more regular in the UK, it is a far from guaranteed bird to get, being only the sixth for the island. It soon stopped singing though, and then was not seen or heard again for the rest of the day.

Sam headed to the Lowlands and Narrows, Henllwyn held three Whimbrels, these were the only waders today aside from the breeding Oystercatchers. There were five Sedge Warblers singing through the Wetlands and the Withies, along with two Whitethroats, one Blackcap and one Willow Warbler.

Oystercatcher chicks are appearing all over the coastline now and nestle down into the Thrift to try and hide from predators overhead

The afternoon then saw Sam, Mari and Emyr heading around the East Side of the island to complete some more seabird monitoring. Some seabirds were ringed too, including seven Shags which are now sporting darvic rings, this will hopefully improve the chances of these birds being re-sighted once they have fledged from the island.

Other highlights and full counts from the East side were: 28 Fulmars, 50 Shags, two Peregrines, 2000 Razorbills, 800 Guillemots, 100 Puffins, 16 Swallows, eight House Martins, two Great Tits and eight Goldfinches.

Ringing today produced: Goldfinch 1, Chiffchaff 1, Razorbill 5, Shag 7. Total 14 birds of 4 species.

The moth trap was back out again last night too now that the high winds have dropped, it wasn't a huge haul as it was a little chilly, totals were: 2 White Ermine, 21 Heart and Dart, 9 Dark Arches, 1 Shears, 7 Bright-line Brown-eye, 3 Flame Shoulder, 1 Shoulder-striped Wainscot, 1 Large Yellow Underwing, 1 Light Brown Apple Moth and 1 Common Pug.

White Ermine from last night.

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