Thursday 21 May 2020

Another night of Manxie ringing in which another 102 birds were ringed and 33 were re-trapped, not bad going, that's almost 200 new birds in a couple of nights.

A Manx Shearwater ringed last night

The day started rather wet at roughly 06:00, with some slight drizzle that soon cleared. The morning census around the Narrows and South End yielded three Ringed Plovers, two Dunlins and five Turnstones as far as small waders are concerned, these were all feeding on Solfach. The 11 Sanderlings that were present yesterday were nowhere to be seen today.

Henllwyn was flat calm this morning

The South End gorse harboured the usual Stonechats and Wrens, with the occasional Oystercatcher amongst it all. The first fledgling Rock Pipit was recorded today, it was food begging on the rocks in Henllwyn, so we'll be seeing more of them very soon. Another juvenile Stonechat was seen in front of Cristin today too, also being fed by the adults.

A food-begging juvenile Rock Pipit (left) with an adult (right)

 A slightly closer view of the same juvenile Rock Pipit

Juvenile Stonechat

Once back from the census, we had plans to ring the Chough chicks on the South End, but first to check the productivity burrows for incubating adults, concentrating on the burrows that are on the East Side of the mountain. Sam and George ended up being out for roughly four hours checking the burrows and experienced some bizarre weather at the top of the mountain. Some mist rolled in from the sea and the temperature went from uncomfortably hot to uncomfortably cold in a matter of minutes!

The mist shrouding the mainland

Moving our way

 Until it swept around us, along with the cold breeze that was carrying it

The burrow checks went well, it appears some of the birds haven't got round to laying quite yet, but there is still plenty of time for them to lay and incubate. It's not uncommon for birds to lay eggs in June, some can lay as late as July, but that is really at the tail end of the season.

Because of the temperature drop and the fact that it was rather late in the day, the Chough ringing was postponed until Monday, which is something to look forward to!

Sightings today include: five Whimbrels, eight Shelducks, 79 Oystercatchers, one Collared Dove, 24 Swallows, five House Martins, nine Wheatears, nine Stonechats, eight Sedge Warblers and 14 Linnets.



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