The unsettled weather continued today with sporadic showers throughout the morning hampering the ringing efforts. However, we were not much aggrieved as signs of life both in the garden and further afield were few and far between. The highlights of a rather bird-free day at the Bill were 21 Wheatears, 12 Willow Warblers, two Garden Warblers and singles of Pied Flycatcher and Tree Pipit. Elsewhere on the island, signs were not good either with a trip around the center of the island yielding nothing of note and only the slightly unexpected highlight of a Chiffchaff of note at Ferrybridge.
After an enforced hiatus we were very pleased when Nick Hopper suggested deploying his recording kit at the Obs on a couple of seemingly promising-looking nights at the tail end of last week. Readers won't be surprised after seeing the numbers recorded that it's taken a long time to go through the recordings from these nights! Nick's report is as follows:
Will start with the second night - 14th/15th August - which produced
a staggering 737 flycatcher calls. The dominant species was Pied Flycatcher
with 472, Spotted Flycatcher 169 with a further 96 either or.
Also 202 Tree Pipit calls. The wader highlight was a Little Ringed Plover.
Other callers were:
Green Sandpiper
Greenshank
Turnstone 2
Common Sand 14
Ringed Plover 9 flocks
Dunlin 7 flocks
Knot
Bar-tailed Godwit 1 flock
Whimbrel 2 flocks
Common Tern
The night before - 13th/14th August - recorded 12 Pied Fly and 6 Spot Fly calls. Tree Pipit 173
calls and Robin 4 calls.
Other callers were:
Green Sandpiper 3
Grey Plover
Turnstone
Common Sandpiper 13
Whimbrel 3 flocks
Dunlin 2 flocks
Bar-tailed Godwit 1 flock
Ringed Plover 9
Grey Heron 3
