Friday 20 April 2012

20th April 2012

The weather this morning was slightly less unpleasant, yet still from the west with little or no migration, just a single Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Wheatear on the island. The Wheatear was of the nominate race, we expect most Wheatears passing through from now on to be of the Greenland subspecies. Not content with eating the meal worms provided in the potter trap the first time around the Wheatear returned twice more to continue its juicy meal and when re-weighed it had gained 1.2 grams (about 5% of its body weight) in not much more than 2 hours. Six Swallows floating through and 4 Goldfinches was all the overhead migration, even Pied wagtails did not appear today. A juvenile Peregrine sat on the west cliff of Middle early in the day and later an adult was on the sand east of the island. Seabirds seen were mostly Gannets (50+) and Sandwich Terns (100+), Whimbrel (2) are still in short supply for this late in April, but 80 Sanderling was a nice total. The resident Rabbit showed on the path by the paddocks early this morning (above), it certainly seems to be happy on the island alone for all this time.
Ringed :- 1 Wheatear, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff
(DB,CJ et al)            [ 322- 20 ]            photo  CJ

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