A strong south easterly this morning with showery rain starting just before dawn gave some hope that migrants may have been grounded. In reality there was a steady trickle of 25 Willow Warblers up to mid-day (right) but no sign of a any of the larger and scarcer warblers expected at this time in May. Visible migration made it very worthwhile to listen and look overhead, there were about 500 Swallows arriving from the north west, battling against the wind,with them were 30 House Martins, 3 Swifts together and a single Sand Martin, also small parties of Redpolls and a single Siskin. Scarcer species included a Tree Pipit, 2 White Wagtails and 3 Yellow Wagtails, one of which dropped briefly to the ground (below). A visiting Woodpigeon flew about on its own for a short while. A Common Sandpiper was found late morning on the east side of the island while Whimbrel only seemed to be in single figures today and wader numbers generally appeared to be lower than earlier in the week. Sea birds that were seen despite the wind being unsuitable to bring them close included: 35 Gannets, 6 Razorbills, 2 Guillemots, a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers and a Manx Shearwater off the west side.
Ringed:- 15 Willow Warblers, 2 Linnets. [ 430-27 ]
(CJ,DCT,PT,NDW,CJW+PLN, et al) photo CJ
Looks channel-lke
ReplyDelete