2nd June 2017

Weather: no wind, rain first thing, then drizzle on and off during a muggy day

The day began late as rain battered down on the Obs from soon after dawn.

It was a quiet start to the day with nothing new on the first couple of trap rounds.

The sub-song of a warbler was heard in the Obs garden when the drizzle subsided and an Acrocephalus appeared briefly showing pale legs and feet and fairly long wings.  However, it soon became apparent that it was in fact a Reed Warbler - not as exciting as the other possibilities but still a scarce bird on Hilbre only the eleventh record for the islands so rarer than Yellow-browed Warbler (but nine of those records have been since 2000).

The bird remained very faithful to the privet singing more confidently during the day and avoiding the mist net in the other corner of the Obs garden throughout the day.

The most exciting record of the day came from one of the two moth traps - a stunning Striped Hawkmoth was the first moth found by one of our young moth enthusiasts.

This represents the first record for Hilbre of this spectacular looking migrant moth. We understand it is the 15th for Cheshire & Wirral (since 1892!) but the first for a decade or more.

Other sightings today included a few terns around the island and smaller numbers of Sanderling (35) and Dunlin (18) and a single Ringed Plover.