10th and 11th July
A cracking couple of days weather wise – calm, sunny and
warm allowed us to put some good time in with ringing and birding; waders again
dominated the log on the 10th as counts included 354 Golden Plover,
98 Knot, 36 Sanderling (a marked increase), a single Purple Sandpiper, 140
Dunlin, 32 Bar-tailed Godwits, 3 Whimbrel, 48 Curlew, 80 Turnstone and the 2 Red-necked Phalaropes still while 170
Common Gulls in the recently cut silage fields was also a slight increase.
Despite the big numbers of Arctic
Terns on the 9th seemingly moving off south in the evening
(unfortunately taking the White-winged Black Tern with them!) there were still
huge numbers lingering on the rocks off Bewan with 3,950 birds counted but
nothing different could be found lurking in the flocks. Landbirds were represented by 2 Chiffchaffs
caught in Holland (an elusive over-summering bird and a new arrival), 3
Collared Doves and 23 Sand Martins.
Arctic Terns
The
cut silage fields were again the place to be in the fine weather on the 11th
with a Black-tailed Godwit in amongst increased counts of 360 Oystercatchers,
72 Curlew and 400 Golden Plover; other birds of note included a Common Tern in
amongst a reduced (but still impressive) 2550 Arctic Terns, the lingering Black-throated Diver and 2 Red-necked Phalaropes and a new adult
Mute Swan turned up to annoy the pair on Ancum which have now got three small
cygnets.
We're busy ringing Black Guillemots at the moment, they are at a wide range of breeding stages with pairs still on eggs and chicks about to fledge. The mist-netting of adults have produced some interesting results including a couple of birds have were ringed as chicks in 1995 and 1996.
Black-tailed Godwit, photos Simon Davies
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