Wednesday 4 July 2018

It was a bit of a cetacean day today. The sea was flat calm, the visibility looking out to the west was perfect, and a good stare at the sea seemed to guarantee a dolphin sighting. Three Harbour Porpoises were seen first thing, followed by four Risso's Dolphins which slowly passed along the West Coast midway through the morning. A pod of 12 Common Dolphins performed for everyone just before log, and the real icing on the cake was a Minke Whale seen surfacing several times far out into the Irish Sea just after dusk.

The avian highlight today was an overdue first Black Guillemot of the year. Other species logged today included a Fulmar, 1750 Manx Shearwaters, 121 Gannets, an impressive 92 Common Scoters, a Buzzard, two Lapwings, a Dunlin, a Snipe, a Whimbrel, four Curlews, two Redshanks, two Common Sandpipers, nine Black-headed Gulls, a Common Gull, three Swifts, four Sand Martins, 22 Swallows, eight House Martins, two Grey Wagtails, a Stonechat, six Wheatears, nine Sedge Warblers, a Whitethroat, a Blackcap, four Chiffchaffs, four Willow Warblers, four Chaffinches, three Goldfinches and 46 Linnets.

Up to two Emperor Dragonflies are still patrolling Nant Pond, frequently getting into tussles and disagreements with the now resident Broad-bodied Chaser.

It is unheard of for the island to look this dry so early in the summer. Every time we see rain symbols turn up in the upcoming weather forecast, they're quickly replaced with a symbol of a blazing sun.


We're catching fresh examples of both Triple-spotted Clay (top) and Double Square-spot (below) at the moment, providing a good opportunity to compare these two confusion species.


It's been a good year for Garden Tiger. 36 were caught in the moth trap on Pen Cristin last night. Amongst the usual striking colour form was this intriguing individual which lacked any white markings!

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