12th and 13th July
Gorgeous, warm, calm and sunny again on the 12th
with a light westerly breeze and most of our focus went on to the breeding
Black Guillemots and Arctic Terns, both of which have some large chicks now
(although the Tern chicks are few and far between) so there was little time to
look around through the day. The main
event was the now 5 Red-necked
Phalaropes bobbing around on Gretchen (one shy of the island record count!)
while other waders comprised 3 Knot, 16 Sanderling, the Black-tailed Godwit
again, 15 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Whimbrel and 110 Turnstone.
Overnight
ringing then produced 20 Storm Petrels caught on the coast near the Obs along
with a new Leach’s Petrel also
trapped.
Another Red-necked Phalarope picture
The
fine weather continued on the 13th although the light breeze had
swung round into the east; an unseasonal Grey
Wagtail in Nouster continued on from the excellent spring we had for this,
not quite annual migrant while a single Swift, 13 Sand Martins and 3 Collared
Doves were also on the land. The 5 Red-necked Phalaropes lingered on
Gretchen, as did the Black-throated
Diver in Nouster with other counts in the cut fields and on the beaches
comprising 2 Herons, 197 Oystercatchers, 508 Golden Plovers, 45 Sanderling, 76
Dunlin, 81 Redshank and 250+ Common Gulls while at least 650 Puffins rafting
offshore was also noteworthy.
There
was some interesting breeding news as two fresh juvenile Garganey appeared, flying round Hooking – the female has been seen
sporadically through the summer and her sneaky ways have obviously paid
off! Five juvenile Shoveler on Gretchen
probably came from the island with younger broods of 5 and 2 seen on Brides also
encouraging and the first Arctic Tern chick was now flying round The Links –
unfortunately, it looks it will be one of the few this year.
More
overnight ringing then produced another 25 Storm Petrels and more interestingly
another 3 Leach’s Petrels – already
a fantastic year for these hefty, cackling Petrels and we’re hardly into the
season yet!
Juvenile Garganey
Fledgling Arctic Tern
Some big Black Guillemot chicks are in the rocks now, photos Simon Davies
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