13th May 2022

 Weather: SW force 4, W 5 by noon

Another good sea watching day with a wider variety of birds than yesterday, Kittiwakes were again in good numbers but going west in the usual dribs and drabs rather than the large flocks of yesterday, although totalling 85 birds. There were much higher numbers of terns present with the closer birds tending to be Common (220) and the Sandwich Terns (150) feeding more distantly, while an impressive 181 Gannets and 25 Manx Shearwaters were noted on the sea watch. Adding to the total were 24 Guillemot and 3 Razorbills. It was also nice to see 4 Little Tern heading into the swash. During the sea watch one of the 2 Wheatear present was seen to fly in off the sea along with some of the recorded Swallows (19) and House Martin (7). In the paddocks were just singles of Whitethroat and Willow Warbler. A Red-breasted Merganser flew west and the Eider drifted up the gutter with the tide as 2 more flew in to the estuary from the west side. Six resident Shelduck are still around the island.

Dunlin again favoured the islands during the high tide, 850 were counted. Six of the recorded 8 Turnstone roosted on the east side of the north end along with a group of Whimbrel.

 A Wall Brown butterfly was a scarce visitor to Hilbre near the Newton trap.

Photos AS