4th September 2010

Still south easterly but a stonger breeze this morning and first signs were not good becuase only a couple of Willow Warblers were seen in the early look around the island. A steady trickle of Swallows soon started to move, a Wheatear was on Middle and 2 Yellow Wagtails came down to the ground at the north end (left). Yellow Wagtails are fairly unusual here in autumn but they were later joined by another and were still touring the island near to midday.

An observer at the lookout saw a Treecreeper arrive from the sea and sit on the wall nearby and then feed in the sycamores in the rangers rear garden (above). Treecreepers are very rare at Hilbre, and therefore the bird attracted much attention and was eventually seen to enter the 'heli' trap where it was caught and ringed. Another trickle of Willow Warblers and a Whitethroat landed and more Swallows and 3 House Martins passed through during the morning.

Sea watching was reasonable despite the contrary wind direction, 3 Arctic Skuas chased the terns, 40+ Gannets fished, 8 Common Scoters flew east, and 5 Little Terns, 1 juvenile (right) and 2 adult Kittiwakes were seen.

Counts from the shore were:- 12 Bar-tailed Godwits, 13 Ringed Plover, 6 Sanderling and 1 Whimbrel.

Ringed:- 4 Willow Warblers, 1 Robin, 1 Treecreeper.

(FD,CJ,DNW,CJW,SRW, NW,EW, +CD,CEW) [450] photos CJ, CD

3rd September 2010

Talk this morning was of the Icterine Warbler in Cheshire yesterday and a Barred Warbler seen at Hoylake early today and although there were no such rarities found at Hilbre, it was still a good steady migration day. The second Spotted Flycatcher of the autumn (right) arrived early with one or two Willow Warblers, a Chiffchaff and a Whitethroat (below right), and later in the morning another influx of Willow Warblers appeared. A slow passage of Swallows all morning was accompanied by a single Sand Martin and towards midday 30 House Martins crossed over the observatory garden. Typical autumn species seen included 2 Common Snipe, a Greenshank, 15 Canada Geese travelling east and 2 Goldfinches about the gardens (left, adults in main moult), but there was no sign of yesterdays autumn bird (the Firecrest). Only a single Wheatear showed despite the apparently ideal conditions.

Three Little Egrets were on the shore and 2 Whimbrel were still with them, also a Grey Plover was noted, these being scarce lately.

Ten Gannets were noted on the sea, also 5 Common Scoters flew passed distantly, one which seemed considerably larger than the others and caused some discussion.

Quite a good day, and with more south easterlies to come, things could get even better.

Ringed:- 7 Willow Warblers, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Whitethroat, 2 Goldfinches, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Wren.

(DB,JE,ME+HW,CJ,NDW,CJW,PSW,MFW,DGW,RTW) [444) photos CJ

2nd September 2010

Wouldn't you know it ! The first day in weeks when there was no obs presence on the island, a Firecrest is reported at Hilbre on the information services. Several members organised themselves to get across to see if many other migrants had arrived last night, searching all the likely areas in turn and including the rangers garden (with permission) where the Firecrest had first been seen. The bird was duly in the garden happily feeding in the sycamore and privets, but later it flew to the old obs garden where a mist net was in place and the bird captured itself and was taken back to be ringed. The Firecrest was a first year bird, probably a male and looked splendid in the hand, it is the earliest autumn Firecrest at Hilbre by 2 days and we now have had as many Firecrests this autumn as Goldcrests ! let's hope there will be a passage of Goldcrests yet to come.

Other birds seen on the brief visit :- a Common Snipe, 2 Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler, and 3 Little Egrets.

Ringed:- 1 Firecrest, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler.

(BSB,CJ +VB,CJW et al) [430] photos CJ

1st September 2010

With very light winds varying between south, south east, north and north east it turned out to be another beautiful and warm day, which however did not produce many new birds on the ground but there was evidence of passage with about 60 Meadow Pipits flying around the island, 2 Tree Pipits heard with 3 Grey, 1 White and 9 Pied Wagtails seen overhead and 55 Swallows passing through. Two Chiffchaffs and a long staying Willow Warbler were in the gardens with a few new Robins continuing the run of these birds this last few days. The Chiffchaffs in the last week have been calling with what sounds like the dialect of the northern race abietinus, as were the birds ringed today (right), although young birds do not always make the typical call.
The only large warbler was a Whitethroat found on Middle Eye, also on its own was the Greenland Wheatear (left) which however, fed at the potter traps and was ringed.






Off shore not a lot of note, 2 Little Egrets, 2 Guillemots, with single Red-throated Diver, Whimbrel (left), and a RAF 'Hawk' trainer being the highlights.

Butterflies included Speckled Wood,Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell (right) and Small White.
One of the important findings recently was the proof of breeding of the Vapourer Moth (left) at Hilbre.
A cocoon of the moth was found in the winter and again this month in the Blackthorn with eggs and the moth itself has now been seen several times including twice today. Vapourer moths are diurnal, but will come to light at night and are not uncommon on the mainland. The male (see photo) is quite distinctive but the female is nondescript and flightless.
Ringed:- 3 Meadow Pipits, 2 Chiffchaffs, 1 Greenland Wheatear, 1 Robin.
(DB,CJ,CLW,NDW,TGW,CJW,GIW, et al) [427] photos CJ, NDW(Small Tortoiseshell),TGW(Vapourer Moth).

31st August 2010

The wind had turned completely to the south this morning, but the much hoped for easterly did not really materialise ('there's always tomorrow...').

However, a couple of Chiffchaffs were present early morning as was a Wheatear and an early morning Sparrowhawk passed through. The first 'round' of the traps resulted in a surprise - a retrap male Pied Wagtail (ringed in May) as well as a new juvenile bird; perhaps they had been roosting in the 'Heli' trap overnight (see left).

The Robin passage of recent days increased today with six new birds caught and at least nine birds on. A Whitethroat was caught during the morning but other warblers evaded capture until the afternoon when a retrap Willow Wabler and a new Chiffchaff were caught.

Two more Sparrowhawks flew through mid morning and went well off east when attention turned to other matters with seal pup present near 'Shell Bay' (see right).

A drake Tufted Duck and the first Pintail of the autumn (two) provided the wildfowl interest and a superb summer plumaged Red-throated Diver drifted on the tide but little else in the way of sea-birds was noted.

The highlight of the day was found amongst the roosting flocks of Dunlin and Ringed Plover, a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper was picked out and showed very well over the high tide period (left and below right). The waders being much less disturbed by visitors today than yesterday.

Many hundreds of Dunlin and Ringed Plover (below) flocked on the exposed rocks at high tide.

As afternoon turned to evening the fourth Sparrowhawk of the day appeared shooting through the Obs garden chasing one of the resident Dunnocks - the Dunnock dived straight into the net which probably resulted in the Sprawk seeing the net at the last minute and quickly taking diversionary tactics before alighting briefly on the BBQ from where it gave the Dunnock a cursory glance before heading off north. The Dunnock was extracted from the net and released unharmed.

Ten birds caught today included six Robins, Mipit, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and a Pied Wagtail. Another beautiful evening on the island with sunset, rainbow effects and incredible cloud formations...

[BSB, DB, CJ, KMc, NDW, SRW et al] [420] Photos SRW

30th August 2010

What a difference a day makes! The wind had dropped overnight and despite still being a relatively stiff northerly (dropping and backing north east later) the only wind blown sea-bird of note was this Great Crested Grebe that spent the morning fishing just off the slipway.

The first sign that things had changed overnight was the sound of a calling Goldcrest from a bramble bush at first light, despite being photographed (see left) it stayed well clear of the traps and nets; sadly a rare sight in recent times at Hilbre. Let's hope it is a sign of their recovery.

Next was the appearance of four Wheatears together at the North End not long after dawn. Up to at least a dozen Greenland birds spent the day on the island and the improving weather (with hardly a cloud in the sky) meant that the presence of day-trippers resulted in the Wheatears taking up residence of the sheep paddock, fences (see below left) and 'Newton' trap wall.

This resulted in the first three birds of the autumn being trapped and colour-ringed; all of the Greenland race and including a male (see above right).

With the sun shining the resident birds were also putting on a show including the recently colonising Dunnocks (left). Apart from a couple of Robins (of five birds present) the three Greenland Wheatears were the only birds caught. The sun was now blazing and being August bank holiday Monday the Hoylake Lifeboat (RNLI) show put on a performance with the highlights being a spitfire (left) and a couple of bi-plane "wing walkers" (right).

Up to six Little Egrets fed on the ebbing tide during a beautiful evening on the island and as the sun gradually set and the day cooled you could see the Lake District mountain range from Hilbre - there is always something to see here even if the birding is slow ('Black Combe' is on the extreme left).

[FES, TJS, CLW, NDW, SRW, TGW, CJW(f), GIW] [410] Photos SRW

29th August 2010

The strong north westerly wind continued at force 5 or 6 gusting force 7 occassionally (later) gale force 8. An early morning sea-watch produced 500 Sandwich Terns, 30 Common Terns, a single Little Tern and a single Wigeon (just off the North End - see left with Oystercatcher). However, star bird was a juvenile (intermediate phase) Long-tailed Skua which was seen twice for extended periods heading west and occassionally harrassing the odd tern.

A later sea-watch over the tide produced 2 Manx Shearwaters, 3 Fulmar, 20 Kitttiwakes and a single Great Skua.

The only other birds of note were the continued presence of small numbers of Bar-tailed Godwits on the East Hoyle (20 today, 30 yesterday) and the almost ever present Little Egret in the gutter hunting the ebbing tide (see right).

[JE, PSW, SRW, CLW, TGW, CJW(f), GIW + visitors JC and RS] Photos (Wigeon PSW & Little Egret SRW)

28th August 2010

A brisk north westerly brought very little to the island today apart from single Arctic Skua on the sea and a couple of Little Egrets in the gutter. A Wheatear battled against the wind and took shelter in Fisherman's Cove on Middle.

[CJ+1, NDW, SRW, CLW, TGW, CJW(f), GIW]