15th April 2015

Weather:  No wind first thing, backing West by lunch time with drizzle by late morning

A great April day with over 50 species recorded started quietly enough with a few wagtails passing over (including at least 3 Whites out of 11 alba noted) and a single Woodpigeon sat on the Telegraph Station steps.

Chiffchaffs outnumbered Willow Warblers 3 to 1 (literally!) but a male Blackcap was found in Telegraph House garden and was trapped later in the SK.

A female Blackcap was found at the South End and was presumably the same bird that was also trapped in the SK later in the day.

The main focus of the morning became the sea with 23 Little Gulls counted off the west side along with 7 Sandwich Terns and the first two Common Terns of the year.  The Scoter flocks remained impressive with an estimate from Hilbre of c8,000+ birds and despite no Surf Scoters being visible at least 6 Velvets were noted during the day.

The highlight of the day came at around 1pm when the first Grasshopper Warbler of the year was discovered in the Newton trap; a typical date, time and trap for this species at Hilbre.

(CJW (f), CLW, FPW, GIW, SRW, TGW (from over), ME) Photos SRW [156-25]

RAF Air Sea Rescue helicopter passing over Hilbre

14th April 2015

Weather: WSW 3-4, 5/8, good vis

20 Pale-bellied Brents were joined by a single Dark-bellied this morning but the surprise visitor again (particularly given the unfavourable wind direction) was a male Ring Ouzel seen several times around the South End during the morning.

Four Willow Warblers were noted mid morning along with single Chiffchaff and Goldcrest and a flock of seven White Wagtails alighted on the east side of the islands.

A couple of Swallows and a Sand Martins passed through and late evening brought the first Whimbrel of the year heard calling and seen near the North End.

Whimbrel - North End of Hilbre (SRW)

(SRW (from over)) [151-24]

13th April 2015

Weather: SSE force 3

Meadow Pipit   (CJ)

Wheatear  (CJ)

A much calmer day than yesterday, but a very cool breeze all morning, and judging by the relatively quiet day bird wise,obviously not to the liking of many small migrants. Five Meadow Pipits were ringed, well above normal for these birds even on a day with a passage of hundreds through the islands, but this was not the case, barely 25 were counted altogether. Two Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler were the only warblers to be seen and 4 Wheatears, 3 White Wagtails and 8 Goldfinches went through early, and later in the morning 3 Swallows, 3 Sand Martins and the first House Martin of the year passed over the east hoyle towards the Wirral shore. A Merlin was in the usual place on the ridge south of Middle while at the same time another darker bird was around the main island, and a Rock Pipit was at the north end.
A Canada Goose (seems to be a regular this spring) was seen very early on. On the sea 12 Red-throated Divers, 25 Great Crested Grebes and 2 newly arrived Sandwich Terns were off the north end, while the now famous massive Scoter flock off Hoylake was seen to good effect, but not near enough to find any Surf Scoters.
Ringed: 5 Meadow Pipits, 2 Chiffchaffs, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Linnet.    [ 148-24 ]
(CJ et al)

12th April 2015

Weather:  SSW 4 8/8 cloud, rain late morning

Surprising amount of south in the wind this morning produced a single Willow Warbler (which was caught and ringed) along with a couple of Goldfinches.

The surprise of the morning was a flighty male Ring Ouzel; presumably a different bird to any on Friday and continuing an excellent spring for this species at Hilbre (and elsewhere the UK).

A single Woodpigeon and White Wagtail were noted and 20 Pale-bellied Brents are hanging on.

The blustery start to the day with rain late morning gave way to a stunning evening on the islands.

(BT, SRW) Photos SRW

11th April 2015

Weather:  SW 6, 5/8 cloud

A brief lunchtime visit produced very little other than blustery conditions.  There was a single Willow Warbler and two Wheatears on the islands but very little else of note.

(SRW et al)

10th April 2015

Weather: SSE force 1, mist around the coast

Redstart  (CJ)

More classic conditions this morning and the birds did not disappoint.  At least 2 Ring Ouzels were seen soon after dawn, and it was assumed they were both yesterday's birds, but later a male was noted as unringed and it was realised that there were at least 3 on the islands.

A small fall of phylloscopus warblers was as expected with Chiffchaffs outnumbering Willow Warblers by 12 to 7, but only 2 Goldcrests were grounded. Amongst the Chiffchaffs a control bird was caught and we await to hear details of where and when it was ringed.

The first Yellow Wagtail of the year called as it flew south over the obs, as did 6 Tree Pipits (over the morning period), and a single Lapland Bunting that unfortunately was heard and not seen.

Later in the morning a stunning male Redstart appeared in the heligoland trap, a real treat for the observers even though a Redstart is sort of expected in the first part of April. Eight Wheatears made it to Hilbre in the sunshine, as did 10 alba and 3 White Wagtails.

To fully give the full flavour of a brilliant day, some other entries from the log were flyover records of 20 Jackdaws, 10 Redpolls, 150 Meadow Pipits,1 Siskin, 20 Swallows and 3 Sand Martins, while others mostly staying for a while were 34 Goldfinches, and larger species including 3 Canada Geese, 1 Greylag Goose, a Magpie, a Sparrowhawk and a Merlin that took a liking to the passing Meadow Pipits.

Ringed: 8 Chiffchaffs, 5 Willow Warblers, 3 Wheatears, 2 Goldcrests, 2 Goldfinches, 1 Robin, 1 Redstart.

Short video of one of yesterday's Ring Ouzels can be found here https://youtu.be/3XlsfNwhrc4

[ 136-24 ]

(JE,CJ,NDW,PSW, et al) Photos CJ, PSW et al

9th April 2015

Weather: S 1, mist

Excellent conditions for once proved fruitful and the day started well when observers travelling over firstly noted two Merlins on the ridge and then a Ring Ouzel on Middle Eye.  The bird flew north to Hilbre where it was photographed.

Visible migration was good with Jackdaws calling overhead, finches bouncing over, a few White Wagtails moving (with one down on 'the A1' - see right) and a good passage of Sand Martins (32) and  Swallows (21).  

Grounded migrants were also in evidence with a couple of Chiffchaffs and the first Willow Warbler of the Spring were caught (see below) and the first two Blackcaps of the year (both males) were recorded.

A Ring Ouzel was caught and immediately another appeared.  Then another with all three birds present at the South End for a short period.

Other oddities noted today included 2 Woodpigeon, a single Canada Goose and a Reed Bunting overhead and 6 House Sparrow including one caught to make it a duo of sparrow species in two days.   

A passage of Wrens was noted with 15 recorded including 8 new birds ringed (see right) and a control caught.

The second Ring Ouzel of the day was caught in the Newton trap mid morning and this was followed by the hat trick in the same trap around midday.

What a great day...

(CJ, KMc, SRR, CJW and SRW) [114-22]

8th April 2015

Weather: wind light and variable, sunny.

Tree Sparrow

The first morning this week without any fog proved to be fairly quiet without even the large Meadow Pipit movements of recent days, and with only the odd Chiffchaff and Goldcrest in the trapping areas, until the event of the day when 2 Tree Sparrows and 2 House Sparrows landed in the rangers garden seemingly in a single arrival.

One of the Tree Sparrows was trapped for ringing, the first captured on the island for four years.

Tree Sparrow

The other highlight of the day was the long expected sighting of the first Sandwich tern seen this year which was feeding off the west side mid morning. The recent sequence of Woodpigeons continued with 3 today and the Merlin showed just once flying off the east side as observers arrived this morning. Two Wheatears were present on the main island but did not even go near the potter traps, while flyovers included a few Redpolls, Skylarks etc. Five Little Egrets were in the east gutter at some stage, as were 18 Brent Geese, possibly all that remain of the winter flock.

Goldcrest (female)

Ringed: 1 Tree Sparrow, 1 Blackbird, 2 Robins, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Goldcrest [ 95-18 ]
(CJ, SRW) photos SRW