Hello
A mixture of weather down here on the Scillies during the last few days but generally pretty dry and still mild and with ridiculous numbers of interesting insects still on the wing. The people monitoring the moths are finding all sorts of rare specimens and there are Hummingbird Hawk-moths everywhere! The last few days have provided more records of Vagrant Hawker dragonflies, lots of butterflies and even a couple of stick insects!
Bird-wise it has been relatively quiet and some of the standard scarce migrants have been difficult with very low numbers of Firecrests and Wrynecks. Even the Yellow-browed Warblers are only here in small numbers and are definitely not showy!
Eleanor took a boat trip around the islands on Sunday and saw large numbers of Grey Seals, a party of four Grey Phalaropes and a variety of inshore sea-birds including auks, Common Scoters etc.
Blackcaps are moving through the islands in high numbers and even the winter thrushes have arrived with small numbers of fresh Redwings, Fieldfares and Ring Ouzels each day (and even a Mistle Thrush today which is scarce here). Scarce migrants seen most days include Lapland Bunting, Richard's Pipit, Red-backed Shrike, flycatchers and Common Redstarts and there has been a big arrival of Black Redstarts and White Wagtails. Several 'Yellow Wagtails' include some perplexing individuals. Merlins, Sparrowhawks, Kestrels and Peregrines whizz around the islands and keep things lively!
Regards
Neil M
A mixture of weather down here on the Scillies during the last few days but generally pretty dry and still mild and with ridiculous numbers of interesting insects still on the wing. The people monitoring the moths are finding all sorts of rare specimens and there are Hummingbird Hawk-moths everywhere! The last few days have provided more records of Vagrant Hawker dragonflies, lots of butterflies and even a couple of stick insects!
Bird-wise it has been relatively quiet and some of the standard scarce migrants have been difficult with very low numbers of Firecrests and Wrynecks. Even the Yellow-browed Warblers are only here in small numbers and are definitely not showy!
Eleanor took a boat trip around the islands on Sunday and saw large numbers of Grey Seals, a party of four Grey Phalaropes and a variety of inshore sea-birds including auks, Common Scoters etc.
Blackcaps are moving through the islands in high numbers and even the winter thrushes have arrived with small numbers of fresh Redwings, Fieldfares and Ring Ouzels each day (and even a Mistle Thrush today which is scarce here). Scarce migrants seen most days include Lapland Bunting, Richard's Pipit, Red-backed Shrike, flycatchers and Common Redstarts and there has been a big arrival of Black Redstarts and White Wagtails. Several 'Yellow Wagtails' include some perplexing individuals. Merlins, Sparrowhawks, Kestrels and Peregrines whizz around the islands and keep things lively!
Regards
Neil M
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| Grey Seals Eleanor McMahon. |
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| Grey Phalarope Eleanor McMahon. |
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| Scilly fisherman. |
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| Bums on the beach - Tor and Jaeger enjoying themselves! |
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| One of those 'Yellow Wagtails'?? |
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