Weather: SW force 2 Sunny and warm, wind direction swinging to the north during the day.
A look at the north end first thing this morning was a fortunate choice when 2 Puffins were immediately seen flying off to the north west corner of the island. They did a circuit and approached within camera range before heading off to the east. The light was poor that aerly in the morning, nevertheless good record shots were obtained.
This
is a typical date for this species at Hilbre but it is still rare and
is by no means guaranteed for regular observers here. Yet again the Pink-footed Geese surprised us as 38 flew north this morning, paralel to the Wirral shore. It was quiet in the paddocks, just 2 or 3 Willow Warblers were about also 6 Goldfinchws and 2 Redpolls appeared during the day. Four Collared Doves flying made a change from the recent Woodpigeons.
There were no martins today, but up to 90 Swallows were moving, many flying through high and over the sea. Three Jackdaws were other high flyers over the sea, they were late for this species at Hilbre. The same 4 Eiders as yesterday were recorded, and a Goosander flew distantly towards the West Kirby marine lake, Apart from the Puffins, 52 Gannets, 3 Red-breasted Mergansers and 3 Great Crested Grebes were logged from the sea and terns gathered in good numbers including 64 Little Terns, 32 of which roosted east of the gutter and then fed over it.
Sandwich Terns (180) and Common Terns (85) also showed well today.There was a decent amount of waders on the high tide with 32 Whimbrel, 75 Ringed Plover, while 3,500 Dunlin and 35 Sanderling roosted mostly on the north end of Middle. It has been a lean time for the moth trap recently, but at 4 or 5 were caught this morning including this Brown Silver-line.
Others from the obs garden light were Shuttle Shaped Dart, Red-green Carpet, Silver Y, Flame Shoulder and Hebrew Character.
Ringed: 1 Linnet
Photos: AEH, CJW, SRW
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