8th November 2008

The wind was still from the south east at first light despite the forecast of change to the less favourable migration direction of south west later in the day, and the birds duly obliged with many good records during the morning.

The male Snow Bunting was still on middle early in the day and the Great Northern Diver reappeared off the north end with the Eider, 5 Wigeon and 4 Teal.



The Pale-bellied Brent are now at 101, and the Purple Sandpipers at 16 (some returning birds with colour rings (left) from previous years), but the sea was fairly quiet apart from a Merlin that flew across and a Red-breasted Merganser, a Shag and a few Great Crested Grebes.


No Blackbirds today but 14 Redwing, 3 Fieldfare, and 3 Song Thrushes.

A Short-eared Owl flew in from the north and went off south, followed by another that arrived an hour later from the same direction. This is surprisingly the first Hilbre sighting this autumn of this species despite there being good numbers further down the estuary.











Not many finches although a larger flock of 14 Goldfinches were seen to arrive off the sea at the north end but moved on as they were not relocated on the island. Not many other small passerines except for a few Robins and a Dunnock.










Only a Chaffinch ringed but a Song Thrush trapped was particularly interesting as it was the partial albino bird that has been seen on the island since Wednesday this week. When trapped it was found to have been previously ringed at Hilbre as an adult on 28th October 2006, and re-caught on 3rd November that year. The reoccurance at a similar time of year suggests Hilbre as its regular staging site to and from winter quarters. At the time of ringing it was in normal plumage, but of course it will have moulted twice since then.




(FD,JE,CJ,PGW,SRW, + vis.PW) photos:- 2nd owl Phil Woollen, others CJ & SRW