24th June 2010

A fairly strong north westerly produced records of 40 Gannets, 2 Guillemots and a Common Scoter.
At low tide yet another all time record count of 825 seals was made.
(DB)

23rd June 2010

Highlight of today were 3 Manx Shearwaters seen fairly closely on a south westerly breeze. Just 2 Sandwich Terns seen and passing through during the morning were 3 Swallows and a Swift.
(DB)

20th June 2010

Single female Scoter (left) and Eider were off the west side at the ebb tide this morning and 10 Gannets were out to sea early with 3 Great Crested grebes but again no terns were to be seen.

Thirty two Curlew flying south at Little Eye was a very good number for mid-summer although unexpected bird of the day was a late Whimbrel (above right) that flew down the east side calling.

Young birds seen today on the island included a Dunnock (left) along with the more regular breeding species.

Burnett moths (above right) are now hatching out in numbers, but despite the warm sunshine the only butterfly of the morning was a Small Tortoiseshell.

(DB+ESCA,CJ) photos CJ

brief updates for this last week are below

18th June 2010

The young of 3 species that bred on the island were ringed today : - Carrion Crow (left), Wren (right) and Meadow Pipit (below left).

An out of season male Chiffchaff (below right) was also present today, no doubt a failed breeder from the mainland and the fact that it had some growths around the head may have had some bearing on its lack of success.

Ringed:- 2 Wrens, 2 Meadow Pipits, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Carrion Crow

(DB,JE et al) [ 302] photos JE

17th June 2010

A massive wreck of jellyfish was found deposited by the tide today on the shorelines of Hilbre and the Red Rocks area. They consisted mostly of the common 'Moon' jellyfish aurelia aurita but with some giant 'Lion's Mane' jellyfish cyanea capillata often resting on a carpet of the smaller commoner species, as in the picture taken at Middle Eye. None of the present witnesses pretend to be an expert in the field of jellyfish but it is known that the Lions Mane is capable of giving a very painful sting.

(DB,BSB and AAB,CJ at Red Rocks) photo BSB

16th June 2010

The noise of a few thousand Herring Gulls making a commotion at 14.40hrs alerted an observer to an Osprey flying up the estuary to the west of Hilbre. It rounded Red Rocks dived for fish and departed passed Hoylake and Meols (where it was twitched by a member on the shore) and off to the north.
(DB,CJW on the mainland)

15th June 2010

A total of 10 Little Egrets were around the islands today on the ebb tide, surely a record count for Hilbre.
A single Swift and 5 Swallows were the only migrants.
(DB)

14th June 2010

Good sea bird numbers noted today included 163 Gannets, 140 Common Terns, 3 Sandwich Terns and 3 Razorbills. Eight Little Egrets were on the shore. A single Wood pigeon was an unexpected visitor.
(DB)