Sunday, 5 September 2021

The day was mostly flat calm and getting calmer as the afternoon progressed! The sea was like a mill pond and excellent conditions for looking for dolphins!

The morning began with Kevin and Steve trapping Rock Pipits on Solfach using Kevin's new cage trap and a spring trap. Two Meadow Pipits were captured in the cage and tow Rock Pipits in the spring trap.

Steve wandered around the South End and counted the few migrants that were present - which was not many to be honest -  a Whinchat near the farm was the best.

John H headed to Nant and found the first Firecrest of the autumn, as well as Pied Flycatcher.

Hirundine passage totalled 108 Swallows, 11 House and 1 sand Martin. Two flava Wagtails were seen in the morning along with seven Grey Wags that passed over. A Tree Pipit was at Nant in the afternoon. Warblers were in short supply; Willow Warblers totalled just 24 across the whole island, though there were seven Whitethroats. There were surprisingly no Spotted Flycatchers, but four Pied Flycatchers were seen.

Pied Flycatcher

Stuart is on Holiday, and Steve is being ably assisted this week by Kevin Clements. Stuarts Holiday destination this week is Nant (!!) with his parents. As he was sitting in the back garden of Nant he had a bird appear in front of him which he identified as a Blyth's Reed Warbler. Unfortunately the bird only showed briefly and despite hours of searching was never relocated.

Mick, Myles and Jason are here this week experimenting with using drones to get Risso's Dolphin photos for Identification purposes; and as mentioned earlier the sea was calm. Risso's have been in short supply of late, but 11 animals appeared in the afternoon giving them a great opportunity to see these majestic beasts underwater from above! The footage is great and I hope to be able to show some images later in the week. For now here is a very distant image from me of one of the dolphins jumping!

Risso's Dolphins

Todays Highlights: ten Fulmars, 14 Gannets, one Grey Heron, seven Teal, three Mallard, three Common Scoter, two Sparrowhawk, six Ringed Plover, one Golden Plover, two Purple Sandpipers, six Dunlin, 47 Curlew, six Redshank, one Common Sandpiper, 35 Turnstone, 300 Kittiwakes, six Sandwich Terns, one Sand Martin, 108 Swallows, 11 House Martins,one Tree Pipit, 55 Meadow Pipits, two flava Wagtails, seven Grey Wagtails, one Whinchat, 36 Stonechats, one Reed Warbler, One Blyth's Reed Warbler7 Whitethroats, two Garden Warblers, 24 Willow Warblers, one Firecrest, four Pied Flycatchers, 8 Goldfinch, 230 Linnets

No comments:

Post a Comment