Wednesday 19 August 2020

Last night was relatively dark and a strong breeze prompted a late night-early morning dazzling session. It was well worth it, as the first Curlew of the year was caught. A juvenile, just beyond the Lighthouse at the South End.

juvenile Curlew

Today was rather bleak, it was calm and dry to start, so nets were opened briefly, but the wind quickly picked up and drizzle moved in which quickly changed to heavier, more persistent rain, which was around on and off all day.

In the morning, Sam opened a few nets at the Obs for a short while and caught a single Goldcrest, rather a quiet session! He then headed down to the Narrows with George after closing the nets to see what was about down there, there were a few more smaller waders than in recent days; 11 Ringed Plovers, two Sanderlings and nine Redshanks were in Solfach along with a juvenile Kittiwake. On first appearances, it seemed the Kittiwake was going to be unable to fly, however when we got closer it did fly away fine, but revealed fishing tackle wrapped around its legs...

Alex headed up to Nant, it was relatively quiet but there was a scattering of Willow Warblers along the Mountainside, and around 25 in the Plantation itself, along with a single Spotted Flycatcher. Two Willow Warblers were also feeding on there rocks along the West Coast, these must be fresh-in birds, or they'd have probably moved further inland to more favourable habitat.

looking North at Nant, with a cameo appearance from Alex..!

The afternoon was particularly dreary, so we all cracked on with some data entry. Steve headed out once the rain had moved through and had a Whinchat on the Mountain, a Pied Flycatcher at Ty Pellaf and 63 Willow Warblers between the Obs and Pen Cristin.

Other birds and totals from today were: two Sparrowhawks, two Dunlins, four Whimbrels, 38 Curlews, 22 Turnstones, one White Wagtail, 117 Willow Warblers, three Goldcrests, ten Spotted Flycatchers and 13 Great Tits.


No comments:

Post a Comment