21st February 2009

A quiet but pleasant day, Purple Sandpipers roosted the tide at the north end, some colour ringed from previous years. A male Snow Bunting that has been around for most of the week was by the path also near the north end and showed well to photographers.

A Greylag Goose flew around the island before going off to Wales but very little else to get excited about on the sea, just single Red-breasted Merganser, Red-throated Diver and a few Common Scoters, and so another sighting of a Harbour Porpoise drew most attention.

Land birds were especially scarce with the trapping area holding just 2 Song Thrushes and a Robin, in fact the only capture of the day was a frog that miraculously appeared in the Newton heligoland trapping box !

(FD,AMC,JE also PW ) Snow Bunting close-ups Phil Woollen, other photos JE