The easterly winds continued over the weekend earlier than switching to prevailing south-westerly on Monday eleventh and a reasonable northerly on Tuesday Twelfth.
It has been a rollercoaster of a weekend, burning the candle at each ends (and within the center) with nets open at daybreak in Millcombe and a late evening Storm Petrel/Manx Shearwater session in between two nights of dazzling effort which concluded with a Hoopoe and a Widespread Snipe.
| Second yr Hoopoe ringed © Adam Day |
After a gradual autumn on the raptor entrance, the previous few days have seen single sightings of first yr Marsh Harrier in off and north on the Terrace on the tenth, first yr Osprey in off after which south at Millcombe on the eleventh and Passion briefly across the Touchdown Bay on eleventh. Our visiting ringers Adam Day and Rory Akam are credited with all of those information, so we’re very glad to have them on the island.
We continued to swarm with Wryneck, with 4 people ringed up to now, and not less than a fifth unringed fowl noticed on the Twelfth. Stayers in Brambles Villa had been even in a position to admire and {photograph} a Wryneck from their front room. The Rose-coloured Starling continues to be current, though there have been no additional sightings of the Pintail.
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| First yr Wryneck from Brambles Villa Dwelling Room © Clive Couzens |
Two Golden Plover individually at reverse ends of the island on the eleventh, a Ringed Plover over the east on the eleventh, Dunlin on Barton’s Pond on tenth and round Excessive Road on Twelfth, single Snipe on a regular basis besides eleventh and at last a Widespread Sandpiper heard from North Gentle within the evening of the eighth make up waders observations for this era. Small Herring Gull actions famous with 23 on the eleventh. Right now of yr our breeding Herring Gulls have dispersed, leaving birds roaming between feeding teams. Small actions similar to this are sometimes recorded all through the autumn earlier than our native birds return on in a few months to over winter across the island. Two first yr Gray Heron had been current on the island on eleventh.
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| Ringed Plover south of Half-way Wall. © Clive Couzens ({Photograph} taken on seventh Sept) |
Hirundine counts stay as a trickle up to now, with peak counts of 15 Sand Martin, 10 Home Martin, 12 Swallow on the eleventh. There have been three Swift feeding over the airfield all afternoon on the Ninth too.
Good arrival of 24 Chiffchaff, 26 Widespread Whitethroat on the Ninth together with a Hoopoe over by Quarter Wall. A few Sedge, Backyard and Reed Warblers have been picked up most days and a Grasshopper Warbler was ringed on the tenth. Blackcap have averaged 20 most days, aside from the eleventh which was a lot quieter with solely six detected. Willow Warbler had been comparable of their abundance, with c.40 most days, however solely a dozen on the eleventh. We’re nonetheless choosing up Firecrest, with a peak of 4 on the eleventh. There was a small arrival of Goldcrest on the Twelfth with 21 recorded. A Treecreeper, the primary for the yr, was additionally recorded on the eleventh. A Bonelli’s Warbler sp. confirmed very properly on the Terrace on the tenth. No name was heard and so it is rather troublesome to nail it as western or japanese based mostly on plumage alone.
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| Bonelli’s Warbler sp. Terrace. © Angus Croudace |
Widespread Redstart had been current on the Terrace on a regular basis. Flycatcher numbers have slowly been dropping off, with 16 Noticed Flycatcher and 10 Pied Flycatcher on the Ninth, and simply 3 and 5 respectively on the Twelfth. Whinchat have additionally been shifting out with solely three on the Ninth and a single on the tenth. Together with the noticeable inflow of Whitethroat, Northern Wheatear had been ample once more on the Ninth, with a depend of 15 recorded doubtless an underestimate. The identical Wheatear was caught and ringed in SW discipline on the Ninth and eleventh while dazzling and it is weight had elevated by simply over 2g, which is just below 10% of it is general physique weight. It is nice to see arduous knowledge evidencing these birds feeding up earlier than they embark on the subsequent leg of their migration, which is simply doable with the insights of the BTO ringing scheme. Among the Wheatears had been of the Greenland race leucorhoa, that are noticeably chunkier and well-marked within the discipline.
A Yellow Wagtail was current on the Ninth and tenth, with the primary two Gray Wagtail of the season round on the Ninth-Twelfth. A few Tree Pipit proceed to be picked up every day. A big flock of 180 Linnet has been seen for a number of days feeding round Pondsbury and a customer captured a sound recording of a Nightingale within the Bracken under the Terrace on Twelfth.
It is also that point of yr the place younger Manx Shearwaters are efficiently fledging and leaving the colony. Nevertheless, for a number of the lure of the Marisco Tavern is an excessive amount of! Between nightfall and midnight (after which the diesel turbines swap off for the evening) the lights of the Tavern entice a handful of birds annually. Upon touchdown within the neighborhood of the Tavern, the flat floor makes it troublesome for them to alight once more – the steep cliffs of the colonies are an important a part of getting them airborne after they fledge. They scuttle into cracks, crevices or corners across the Tavern buildings when daybreak comes, however they don’t seem to be at all times as effectively hidden as they could assume! These birds are rescued when discovered within the morning. We take the chance to ring them after which that night return them to a burrow within the colony to help them of their subsequent flight try. They’d naturally filter all the way down to the cliffs once more themselves below the quilt of darkness, however our serving to hand provides them a shortcut (they’re famously awkward when manoeuvring on land), and likewise strikes them out the best way of the daytime pedestrian site visitors within the busy village.
